Press Release

AFL-CIO Sports Council Celebrates MLBPA’s Minor League Players Union Campaign Launch

The AFL-CIO Sports Council is excited to celebrate the launch of the Major League Baseball Players Association’s (MLBPA’s) historic campaign that will change the lives of Minor League Baseball players forever. Minor League players represent the future of the sport, and for far too long, their labor has been underpaid and undervalued.  

“It is our pleasure to support and welcome the Minor League players into the labor movement,” said NFL Players Association (NFLPA) Executive Director DeMaurice Smith. “When we launched our AFL-CIO Sports Council, this is exactly the type of historic advancement of workers organizing we envisioned. Our union will do everything we can to support their efforts.”

“We are thrilled for Minor League Baseball players, as this has been a long time coming,” said USL Players Association-CWA (USLPA-CWA) Executive Committee member Connor Tobin. “We have experienced the incredible value of our union in numerous ways, including securing our first contract, and we look forward to unmatched solidarity.”

Together, the council will light the way to a just future where all athletes have access to good pay, good benefits and good union jobs.

Contact: Carolyn Bobb, 202-637-5018

The AFL-CIO Sports Council is a working group of professional athletes’ unions founded to provide a forum to align the interests of professional athletes on areas of common concern—collective bargaining, organizing, social justice and solidarity—with service, hospitality and other workers in our industry. 

Its founding members are the NFL Players Association, the National Women's Soccer League Players Association, the United Soccer League Players Association-CWA, the U.S. Women's National Team Players Association and the newly organized United Football Players Association-USW.