MLS Players Association Becomes AFL-CIO Affiliate
The Major League Soccer Players Association (MLSPA) announced on Thursday that it has become an affiliate of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO).
MLSPA members will join the more than 12.5 million workers that make up the unions of the AFL-CIO. The players associations of MLB, NFL, NWSL, WNBA and the USWNT are all AFL-CIO members.
The affiliation was unanimously approved by the MLSPA executive board and then also approved at the AFL-CIO's Winter Executive Council meeting in early February.
"From locker rooms and classrooms to coffee shops and warehouses, workers all over the United States are demonstrating the power of organizing on a daily basis," MLSPA executive director Bob Foose said in a statement.
"Over the past twenty years, our players have fought to improve the working conditions and rights of athletes in Major League Soccer. We look forward to working with the AFL-CIO and standing beside its member unions as we fight for every worker, whether it be an athlete or a stadium employee, with one collective voice."