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I worked with a couple of the AMLU folks to draft the letter. There is one change that may not have made it out to everyone, so I will post the most updated version here (Look at the last two paras):
If you would please distribute this to all of the umpires in your local association it would be greatly appreciated.
Dear Fellow umpires,
We would like to take a just minute out of your time and update/inform you on the Association of Minor League Umpires (AMLU) and their current negotiations with Minor League Baseball (MiLB) and Professional Baseball Umpire Corporation (PBUC).
If you have not already heard, our contract/collective bargaining agreement has expired and we have been in negotiations with MiLB/PBUC for the past three months. We are asking for better wages and living conditions for the umpires of today and the future to be. To date, MiLB/PBUC and the AMLU have been unsuccessful on agreeing to a new contract. With that being said, the AMLU has made a decision not to attend spring training this year.
If you have not read the numerous articles about our situation, you can visit the AMLU website (www.amlu.org) and view many of the articles there. We also have available a section for associate membership for a very small fee. If you are not interested in this membership and want these articles, you can email me directly and I will do my best to send these your ways. You can also do a Google search using "Minor League Umpires Voting on Contract.
In a nutshell; MiLB umpires have not had a pay raise in over 10 years. Our per diem is $25/day at the highest level while the government provides for a minimum of $40/day. We are not asking baseball to make minor league umpires rich by any means, but we are asking them to come up to a par level and allow us to follow our career paths with affordable means - right now, the wages are not livable and a top AAA umpires currently makes $14,000/season (give or take).
As fellow umpires, and many of you we know on a personal level, would ask that you take our situation into consideration if you are approached to work games in either spring training or the regular season.
The AMLU would like to assure you that our members have no intention of going after you games. During the period when we are not working, many of our members are willing to be a go to resource to assist your association with filling open games. Many of our members already have games that are scheduled to them and will maintain their current schedule. But we will recommend to our local assignor to only utilize us if necessary.
We hope this information helps and each of you will stand behind our effort. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for umpires in the minor leagues. If umpires don't make their stand now, then they will never have any leg to stand on and be pushed around forever.
Thanks for the open ear and we look forward to your support.
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