minor league umps could go on strike

[jjgman21]

I have an inside scoop that a labor dispute is slowly erupting between minor league baseball and its umpires. the umps haven't received a raise in ten years. they are being offered an extra hundred bucks per month, about equal to how much their insurance is going up. the umps said not good enough, and MiBL are bringing it before a judge saying 'we've negotiated all we're gonna negotiate.'

 

these umps are getting screwed. MiLB has essentially admitted they could pay more, they just don't want to. the local, part-time umps who do spring games in AZ and FL get paid more than the regular minor league umps.

 

when the major league umps were fired a few years back, it wasn't seen as much of a problem, just reach into minor league ball for replacements. where will the replacements for all of minor league baseball come from?

 

this could have serious implications for the upcoming season.

[Garwilly]

I have an inside scoop that a labor dispute is slowly erupting between minor league baseball and its umpires. the umps haven't received a raise in ten years. they are being offered an extra hundred bucks per month, about equal to how much their insurance is going up. the umps said not good enough, and MiBL are bringing it before a judge saying 'we've negotiated all we're gonna negotiate.'

 

these umps are getting screwed. MiLB has essentially admitted they could pay more, they just don't want to. the local, part-time umps who do spring games in AZ and FL get paid more than the regular minor league umps.

 

when the major league umps were fired a few years back, it wasn't seen as much of a problem, just reach into minor league ball for replacements. where will the replacements for all of minor league baseball come from?

 

this could have serious implications for the upcoming season.

 

Are you talking about the mass resignation?

[jjgman21]

I have an inside scoop that a labor dispute is slowly erupting between minor league baseball and its umpires. the umps haven't received a raise in ten years. they are being offered an extra hundred bucks per month, about equal to how much their insurance is going up. the umps said not good enough, and MiBL are bringing it before a judge saying 'we've negotiated all we're gonna negotiate.'

 

these umps are getting screwed. MiLB has essentially admitted they could pay more, they just don't want to. the local, part-time umps who do spring games in AZ and FL get paid more than the regular minor league umps.

 

when the major league umps were fired a few years back, it wasn't seen as much of a problem, just reach into minor league ball for replacements. where will the replacements for all of minor league baseball come from?

 

this could have serious implications for the upcoming season.

 

Are you talking about the mass resignation?

 

I am talking about the mass resignation, that was quickly rescinded by most resigning umps, that was followed by the termination of 22 umps

[NCCubFan]

I am talking about the mass resignation, that was quickly rescinded by most resigning umps, that was followed by the termination of 22 umps

Strictly speaking they weren't terminated, they simply weren't rehired. They couldn't really be fired because, once they resigned, they no longer had jobs to be fired from.

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

Minor League umpires have voted to authorize a strike.

 

Link.

 

Minor league baseball umpires voted Friday to authorize their first strike since forming a union in 2000 and said Class AAA members would not serve as fill-in major league umpires until there is a contract.

The minor league umps, whose five-year labor deal expired in November, had previously voted not to work spring training games. The decision whether to strike will be made by the union's officers.

The union represents about 220 umpires in 16 leagues. The average salary for minor league umpires has remained unchanged for a decade. It is about $15,000 at Class AAA, $12,000 at Class AA, $10,000 in full-season Class A and $5,500 in rookie leagues.

[Chris]

I volunteer to call Jaxx games! :lol:

[treebird]

The average salary for minor league umpires has remained unchanged for a decade. It is about $15,000 at Class AAA, $12,000 at Class AA, $10,000 in full-season Class A and $5,500 in rookie leagues.

 

wow, that's pathetic

[Transmogrified Tiger]

The average salary for minor league umpires has remained unchanged for a decade. It is about $15,000 at Class AAA, $12,000 at Class AA, $10,000 in full-season Class A and $5,500 in rookie leagues.

 

wow, that's pathetic

 

I dunno, that's around 24 bucks an hour at the minimum.

[cubsrams1]

Here's a story I wrote on the subject:

http://www.dailymail.com/news/Sports/2006022012/display_story.php?sid=2006022012&format=prn

 

Minor league umpires seeking a fair shake

 

Matt Lockhart

For The Daily Mail

 

 

 

Monday February 20, 2006

 

HUNTINGTON -- Grown men heckle minor league umpires.

 

Wannabe big leaguers try to bully them.

 

For six months, they live from hotel room to hotel room, suitcase to suitcase, while racking up interstate miles like a truck driver.

 

Home-cooked meals get traded in for midnight drive-thru window runs.

 

Oh, and by the way, they don't get days off.

 

So, where's the love?

 

Sure, Major League baseball umpires draw nice paychecks, but their minor league counterparts feel like they aren't getting a fair shake.

 

"They don't see professional umpires being that important at the minor league level," said Chris Ward, a Huntington native who began umpiring professionally two years ago.

 

Ward is talking about the Professional Baseball Umpire Corp.

 

It's the entity that trains, evaluates and recommends who does what in the minor league baseball system.

 

"I think basically they don't see us as an important need," he said.

 

Ward's squabble is one that more than 200 other minor league umpires are dealing with. The Association for Minor League Umpires' contract with the PBUC ran out last year, and the two sides are having trouble reaching an agreement for the 2006 season.

 

"Umpires made more seven years ago than they do now," said Andy Roberts, the union president. "Baseball has had tremendous growth and the pressure on officiating to be next to super human is very evident."

 

Here are the basics of the disagreement between the umpires and the PBUC:

 

 

The umpires say they haven't received a true pay increase in 12 years. So, they are asking for one.

 

The PBUC offered $100 more a month to the umpires, who make anywhere from $1,800 to $3,400 during that time period depending on the level of baseball they are umpiring.

 

However, the PBUC also proposed a raise in insurance deductibles from $100 per year to $500 per year. Since the average season lasts 51/2 months, the insurance deductible increase wiped out any raise, according to the umpires.

"It's evident that they want our services at the lowest possible price," Roberts said. "I guess for future outlook, if we can't come to a better agreement, the last resort is a strike."

 

At the current moment, regular minor league umpires won't be working spring training, which begins in March. Since spring training games are not already in the contract, and the recent squabbles over a new deal have created discontent, the umpires are boycotting.

 

So, does that mean amateur umpires will be getting behind the plate this season at Appalachian Power Park?

 

"What they are going to have to do is dip down into possibly high school umpires," Ward said. "Push comes to shove, that is basically what they are looking at."

 

Ward said he has been told that most college umpire associations have advised crews against turning in college assignments to work minor league games. So, minor league baseball might have to look in another direction for umpires if a settlement isn't reached by March's spring training.

 

While the umpires might not work spring training games, there is still a question mark about the regular season, which begins in early April for the West Virginia Power.

 

Ward and Roberts are hopeful contract negotiations will be settled by the start of the regular season, however.

 

"(Major league teams) want professional umpires on the field because it's important for player development," Ward said.

 

This is where Ward and other umpires really have the problem.

 

"(The PBUC) told us that they could afford to pay us more, but they just didn't want to," Ward said. "They told us what we did is not a career. Yet, on minor league baseball's very own Web site they call it a career three separate times.

 

"There is only one way to get to the big leagues as an umpire and that's to start at the bottom of the totem pole and work your way up."

 

For Ward, his professional baseball journey began in 2004. Since then, he's had to work odd jobs in the offseason to make a living.

 

Right now, he referees high school basketball games, works umpire clinics, sells umpire equipment and works at the YMCA.

 

It's just part of quest to reach the Major Leagues.

 

"That's the only reason I'm doing it," said Ward, who could be working in the South Atlantic League this season. "It's great to work minor league ball, but everybody including the players on the field are working on the same goal."

 

The average salary for Minor League umpires is about $15,000 in Class AAA, $12,000 in Class AA, $10,000 in full-season Class A and $5,550 in Rookie League.

 

They are also given anywhere from $20 to $25 a day per diem. The PBUC offered a dollar more per day.

 

"That works out to about two meals supersized," Ward said.

 

Neither Roberts nor Ward could disclose exactly how much money the umpires were requesting in the new contract.

 

"We aren't trying to win the lottery here," Roberts said. "We are just trying to survive in this career."

 

It's a battle to which they appear dedicated.

Edited March 6, 2006 by cubsrams1

[treebird]

The average salary for minor league umpires has remained unchanged for a decade. It is about $15,000 at Class AAA, $12,000 at Class AA, $10,000 in full-season Class A and $5,500 in rookie leagues.

 

wow, that's pathetic

 

I dunno, that's around 24 bucks an hour at the minimum.

 

for what's expected of these guys, i don't think 24 bucks an hour is very much, especially for the small number of hours they get to work.

 

also, the fact that they haven't upped their salary in 10 years is bad.

[jjgman21]

$24 an hour is one way to look at it. another is that they are being paid peanuts for leaving their homes and going to live in dingy motel rooms and be away from their families for five months at a time, treated like dirt by the players and the leagues. the guy I know won't even try to get insurance for his kid because he's afraid them knowing he had a kid would hurt his chances of moving up (his baby's momma has insurance for the kid).

 

it would be one thing if they were moonlighting as umpires like in a softball league, but these umpires bounce around just like the major league umps do. never in the same town more than a few nights, only with about one week off for the enitre season. the good ones can't even take roots in the region because the next year they may move to a league in a different part of the country.

[Coach C]

So, say for instance the Minor leagues start, and the umpires are still in strike, what will happen then? Will there be replacement umpires?

[cubsrams1]

I've been told that if it comes to a regular season strike (which doesn't appear to be highly likely), that minor league baseball will have to turn to amatuer umpires. The word is that college umpires have been told not to step in, so that leaves minor league baseball without professional umpires and college umpires. Who's next? I'd say a wide variety.

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

If college umps don't step in, they likely will have to turn to high school umpires and semi-pro umpires. The consistiency of that group will vary greatly across the spectrum.

[jjgman21]

well I got some new info from my inside guy who helped me deshingle my roof last weekend (which goes to show how luxurious the life of a minor league umpire is).

 

the minor league umps were made an offer early this week and it looks like they are going to take it.

 

 

some other tidbits

 

the college umps were not looking to work the minors. they knew the minor leaguers were getting screwed and the umpire community is quite tight.

 

Bob Davidson, one of the umps that resigned/was fires/whatever and who gained notoriety during the WBC for blowing numerous calls, will be reinstated and back in the big leagues.

 

the ump this guy respects the most is Joe West.

[jjgman21]

update. they rejected the offer. minor league umps are on strike.

[Chris]

update. they rejected the offer. minor league umps are on strike.

 

Ron said last night that we'll have to wait and see. Thanks for the update.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Dibs on doing the bases for the I-Cubs.

[Chris]

I will call Jaxx home games

[kalarmac]

Well, it's not looking good... listened to the Chief's game and it sounds like some of the plays were blown. There were no names released for the umps who called the game (fear of retribution?), and all that was said is that they were Independant local umpires. Will the league move these guys around to have fair and impartial officiating, or will the same crews work at the same parks all the time? Finally, I Can't help but think that there'll be a decline in attendance @ some parks when the word gets out... how many "good union people" are going to boycot the games until the strike is resolved?