News: Umpires still in a snit

[Patrick Szalapski]

This from AP --P-sz
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PHILADELPHIA -- A group of umpires who backed Richie Phillips are suing the new union and the commissioner's office in an effort to avoid paying dues to the group that beat them in an organizing election last year.

"My clients are challenging the fees that they are being charged by the new union," Pat Campbell, a lawyer for Phillips' Major League Umpires Association, said Tuesday. "What they allege is that there are inappropriate items being charged."

The labor contract negotiated last year by the new union -- the World Umpires Association -- and baseball requires all umpires to pay fees to WUA, whether they are members or not.

Most NL umpires backed Phillips in an election supervised by the National Labor Relations Board, while most AL umpires backed the WUA, which won 57-35.

Among those umpires who sued the WUA in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia are Jerry Crawford, Gerry Davis, Bruce Froemming and Ed Montague, all staunch Phillips supporters. Crawford is president of the MLUA.

The commissioner's office is defendant in the federal lawsuit because it has the power to fire umpires who refuse to pay the fees, Campbell said. He is opposing baseball's motion to be dismissed from the suit.

The plaintiffs maintain that a contract clause requiring them to help pay the union's costs of negotiating is illegal.

Also, the plaintiffs said in court papers that WUA president John Hirschbeck runs the new union in a way that denies contract benefits to non-members.

Lawyers for the WUA and the commissioner's office did not immediately return phone messages left for them after business hours Tuesday.

Campbell said Phillips was not connected to the lawsuit.

"He didn't even know it was filed," Campbell said.