NFL PLAYERS STRIKE: DAY 10 : NFL Officials Will Show Stripes, Cross Lines

Turmoil is no stranger to the National Football League’s game officials, who probably will have to cross the players’ picket lines with everybody else Sunday.

Although some of the league’s 108 officials belong to unions in their off-field jobs, the football officials, unlike major league baseball umpires, do not have a union themselves.

“It’ll be the same as always,” Ed Marion said by phone from Exton, Pa. “We’re not a union, so we’re going to be officiating.”

Marion, a head linesman in the league for 28 years, is executive director of the Professional Football Referees Assn. and he draws a distinction between that organization and a union when the issue of crossing picket lines is raised.

Marion estimated, however, that “25% or 30%” of the officials belong to unions. Most of those are educators, but at least one belongs to a strong labor organization, the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union, Local No. 13.

He is Hendi Ancich of San Pedro, a sixth-year umpire who works full-time as a longshoreman and is assigned to work one of the NFL’s non-union games Sunday.

Game officials are prohibited from giving interviews during the season, so Ancich was unable to say how he plans to handle the situation. It was learned, however, that he received some pressure from co-workers and sought guidance from the union’s leadership in San Francisco.

Also, he aggravated a knee injury in the last game he worked and may not be able to officiate this weekend, anyway.

Ancich apparently is the only official belonging to a labor union. Those who belong to teachers’ unions anticipate no difficulties.

Art McNally, the NFL’s supervisor of officials, said he hasn’t heard of any potential conflicts.

Most officials are non-union professionals or industry executives.

The officials recently asked the league to raise their pay scale. It currently is $450 to $1,200 a game, depending on seniority.

They have had their own association since 1968 and in recent years have discussed turning it into a union to strengthen their position.

“That is still up in the air,” Marion said. “Some of the members were interested. That will still have to be determined by them.”

As it is, they’re in the same situation as the players.

“We don’t get paid if we don’t work,” Marion said.