Minor League Players reach agreement on a historic first collective bargaining agreement that more than doubles salaries at all levels, dramatically improves benefits and working conditions, reclaims Minor Leaguers’ right to control the use of their Name Image and Likeness, and ensures that all Players will have a seat at the table for generations to come. 

The MLBPA launches a historic and successful drive to unionize Minor Leaguers, resulting in voluntary recognition by MLB just 17 days later. The MLBPA is now the exclusive bargaining representative for 5,500 minor leaguers at all levels.

Players remain unified through a 99-day lockout and negotiate a new Basic Agreement. Among other gains, the deal produces historic increases in minimum salaries and Competitive Balance Tax thresholds, a new bonus pool for pre-arbitration Players, and measures to promote competition and combat anticompetitive behavior such as tanking and service-time manipulation. 

Executive Director Tony Clark leads Players on a series of groundbreaking business initiatives that produce an explosion in Player-generated revenues. The union establishes a for-profit subsidiary, MLB Players, Inc., to maximize value from existing and new business, and launches the joint venture OneTeam Partners with the NFLPA and a subsidiary OneTeam International alongside other global sports unions. Through its business partnerships, the Players Association nearly triples its licensing revenue from 2019 to 2024.

MLBPA staff attorney Michael Weiner succeeds Don Fehr to become the union’s third executive director. After a heroic fight against brain cancer, Weiner passes away in November 2013 and is succeeded by Tony Clark, who becomes the first former Player to hold the role of executive director.

Players and owners reach agreement on the eve of a strike deadline, giving the industry its first contract without a work stoppage in 30-plus years.

After more than 100 Players speak with legislators on Capitol Hill, Congress passes and President Bill Clinton signs the Curt Flood Act, which eliminates baseball’s antitrust exemption relating to Major League Players.

By a unanimous vote, Players ratify a new labor agreement. Among other elements, the new CBA calls for increases in the minimum salary, a revenue sharing plan among clubs, and the advent of interleague play starting in 1997.

The formation of the Players Trust in 1996 gives Major Leaguers a vehicle to channel their collective energy into making a difference in the world and their own backyards. From its inception, the Players Trust provides the programs, structure, and resources to help Players build an enduring charitable legacy.

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November 1990 – The Players Association secures a $280 million collusion settlement following a series of arbitrator rulings that MLB owners conspired against free agents following the 1985, 1986 and 1987 seasons.

Donald M. Fehr, who joined the Players Association as general counsel in 1977, succeeds Miller as the union’s second executive director after holding the position for two years on an interim basis. During Fehr’s tenure, the average Player salary increases from $413,000 in 1986 to almost $3 million in 2009.

After a two-day strike, Players and owners agree to a new CBA that includes increased minimum salaries and improvements to free agent compensation provisions. The owners pursue a salary cap, but are quickly rebuffed. The 1985 strike marks baseball’s fifth work stoppage since 1972.

Players strike in the middle of the 1981 season to fend off owners’ push to weaken free agency by giving direct compensation to clubs who lose Players through the free agent process. A total of 713 games are cancelled during a 50-day strike, the longest in sports history at the time. 

Seitz rules again for the MLBPA and in favor of pitchers Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally in their grievance challenging baseball’s reserve clause. Players are no longer tied to their clubs in perpetuity, ushering in the start of free agency in baseball.

Neutral arbitrator Peter Seitz upholds MLBPA grievance, granting free agency to pitcher Catfish Hunter after the Oakland A’s fail to pay deferred compensation as required in Hunter’s contract. 

Players remain unified during a 12-day strike. The dispute ends when owners make a $500,000 contribution to the Players’ pension fund, setting the stage for a 1973 CBA that increases minimum salaries, establishes salary arbitration for Players with at least two years of service, and allows all five-year Players to block a demotion to the minors. “Money is not the issue,’’ Miller tells reporters. “The real issue is the owners’ attempt to punish the players for having the audacity not to crawl.”

Curt Flood’s challenge to baseball’s reserve clause officially begins when he sends a letter to commissioner Bowie Kuhn informing him that he will not accept a trade from the St. Louis Cardinals to the Philadelphia Phillies. “I do not feel that I’m a piece of property to be bought and sold irrespective of my wishes,” Flood writes.

Miller and a committee of players negotiate Major League Baseball’s first Collective Bargaining Agreement. The landmark CBA increases the minimum salary from $6,000 to $10,000, establishes a pension plan, improves the playing schedule, and puts in place the structure of a grievance procedure that ultimately proves pivotal in Players gaining free agency and a host of other foundational rights that they enjoy today.

Marvin Miller, an economist with the United Steelworkers of America, is hired as MLBPA executive director and begins transformation of the Players Association into a bona fide labor union. 

A four-person search committee consisting of big leaguers Robin Roberts, Jim Bunning, Harvey Kuenn and Bob Friend begins the process of finding new leadership for the MLBPA, which was conceived in 1953 but has not been formally recognized as a union. The MLBPA was the fifth attempt to organize MLB Players, with the first attempt dating back to 1885.

Miller negotiates a two-year, $120,000 agreement with Coca-Cola that gives the company the right to use Player likenesses on the underside of bottle caps. The money helps fund the Players Association’s operations upon its inception and establishes a model for other sports unions to follow.