AROUND THE NL : Umpires May Have to Call One Last Walk

Amid a widening split between American and National League umpires and increasingly stronger rhetoric in opposition to union counsel Richie Phillips, the clock is ticking for the 22 umpires whose resignations will become effective Thursday.

One of their last hopes--if not the last--rests with the National Labor Relations Board, which is considering charges of unfair labor practice filed by the union against baseball Aug. 3.

The New York office of the NLRB will decide before Thursday, Director Daniel Silverman said.

Legal experts expect the board to reject the union’s claims, but if the board were to find them valid, it could, as the union has requested, seek a federal court injunction blocking baseball from accepting the resignations.

Such a finding also could enable the union to walk out and label its action an unfair-labor-practice strike.

Umpires are prevented from striking under terms of their collective bargaining agreement, although there has been speculation that those supporting Phillips will stage a wildcat walkout this week unless baseball reinstates the 22 umpires.

Baseball is prepared for that potentially damaging scenario. It has notified the 30 clubs to have replacement umpires ready and it has notified every umpire that any striking umpire will be fired for violating the bargaining agreement.

Meanwhile, the 25 minor league umpires who were hired in July as full-time replacements for the 22 whose resignations were accepted have become part of the division between the union’s two factions--a split that is basically along league lines.

As of Friday, eight of the 13 umpires hired by the NL, most of whose umpires support Phillips, had joined the union, but none of the 12 new AL umpires had joined, and had not even been asked to join by Phillips, a source said.

Veteran American League umpire Davey Phillips, no relation to the union counsel, was reached at his St. Louis home and said the failure to recruit the new AL umpires is illustrative of how “Richie picks and chooses the people he wants to take care of. My goal and the goal of the umpires who believe as I do is a union based on democracy, not dictatorial leadership.

“The hallmark of an effective union is full disclosure and full participation, and that is not how Richie has chosen to operate.”

It is believed that more than 20 umpires from both leagues oppose Phillips’ continued leadership and eventually will try to force a vote on his status, although he received a new five-year contract in March.

Davey Phillips said he hopes that those umpires who support Richie Phillips will soon recognize that to support his flawed strategy would be to follow a “path of destruction” and suffer the same fate as the more than 11,000 air traffic controllers who lost their jobs in an ill-conceived 1981 strike when Ronald Reagan was president.

He added that the only way the 22 umpires will be reinstated is through negotiations with baseball, an unlikely prospect because of Phillips’ ongoing presence.

“Richie Phillips has lost any trust in baseball,” he said. “His credibility is zero.”