1960s Topps MLB Union fighting

[Exhibitman]

Basically, Miller went to Berger to renegotiate, Berger said "you have no muscle", so Miller convinced the players not to sign with Topps, and Berger called back and said "I see your muscle, let's talk."

Read Miller's autobiography; absolutely fascinating look at the business behind the game, and some choice smack talking about Bowie Kuhn, Charlie O, and some of the other characters in management.

[swabie2424]

Also read “Mint Condition” by Jamieson. Whole chapter devoted to this.

The key here is Marvin Miller battled Topps for several reasons. Yeah, he got the players some extra money and made a progressive and visionary deal to make the union self funding, which was important as it had little/no resources. He also got language into the contract that gave the union rights to bargain all collective deals for the players, but the biggest thing was he proved to the players the union could get things done for them. He gained their trust in the process. Remember he came from steelworkers union with an economics background and was a relative outsider. This deal built the foundation for him to gain the juice to take on the league on major issues (obviously free agency being one of the biggest.) It’s an absolute master class in trade unionism. Miller remains a huge hero to those of in the labor world.

[ALBB]

I found it interesting that during this era..being a player rep was a bit of a dangerous job...Owners and Mgmnt hated you

You'd had better be a pretty good player or a respected veteran - I saw names like Torre, Bunning, McCarver, R.Roberts, ...and even some of these guys were traded out of - " " tired of this guys rebel rousing" or " unload this troublemaker"