Minor leaguers union formed

NEW YORK — More than 5,500 minor league baseball players formed a union on Wednesday, completing a lightning-fast organization campaign that launched just 17 days earlier in an effort to boost annual salaries as low as $10,400.

Martin Scheinman, the sport’s independent arbitrator, notified Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Assn. that a majority of the 5,567 players in the minor league bargaining unit had signed union authorization cards since the drive started Aug. 28.

“This historic achievement required the right group of players at the right moment to succeed,” union head Tony Clark said in a statement.

MLB agreed Saturday that it would voluntarily accept a union if there was majority support and would not force players to petition the National Labor Relations Board to hold a representation election.