The Major League Baseball Players Association has officially succeeded in its efforts to unionize the minor leaguers. Arbitrator Martin Schienman officially certified that more than 50 percent of minor league ballplayers have signed a card asking for union representation. Major League Baseball announced that they would recognize the union in that case, forgoing any demand for an up-or-down vote election run by the National Labor Relations Board.
It’s rather stunning how quickly all of this developed. It was only a little over two weeks ago that the MLBPA announced that they were starting a unionization drive after merging with the non-profit Advocates for Minor Leaguers organization.