‘I’m pissed’ | Referees picket in Dallas amid MLS lockout, clamoring for fair wages and better benefits

DALLAS — Major League Soccer (MLS) opened its season Wednesday – a 2-0 Inter Miami victory over Real Salt Lake – with replacement referees calling the game. Saturday’s full slate of matches are also set to be officiated with replacement refs. 

This comes after the MLS and Professional Referee Organization (PRO) announced a lockout last weekend after failing to come to an agreement with the Professional Soccer Referees Association (PSRA) on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). 

On Wednesday, PSRA referees picketed in New York City outside the MLS/PRO offices and in Dallas, where PRO was reportedly meeting with replacement refs to train them. WFAA spoke with two referees at Dallas’ picket, Joe Dickerson and Allen Chapman. Chapman has been an MLS referee for over a decade, officiating two MLS Cups (2017, 2019). Dickerson has been an MLS referee since 2017, serving as the MLS All-Star Game referee in 2017 and the fourth referee for the 2022 MLS Cup.

Dickerson told WFAA the issue at hand doesn’t solely lie on the compensation, but also their lack of benefits. Dickerson also noted the amount of unseen work that goes into being a professional referee. 

“I don’t think many people understand the amount work that goes into it,” Dickerson told WFAA. “You have your game Saturday. Sunday is generally family time … often tired from taking a long flight home. And then work begins again Monday morning, analyzing our game from Saturday. We’re training two to three hours per day, physically, to prepare. Then, your assignment for the next game begins as soon as your analysis from the previous one ends. To study the teams on the next assignment and their tactics.”

“It’s frustrating … and I’m personally pissed to have to be standing here and having this conversation [about a lockout],” Chapman told WFAA.

Chapman has the unique experience of going through a lockout in the past. In 2014, MLS referees were locked out for 2 weeks before the CBA was settled using assistance from federal mediators. That lockout ended with a five-year deal, according to the Associated Press.

Dickerson and Chapman told WFAA the endorsement from the MLS Players Association means the world to them. Dickerson added that the development of the working relationship with the players is one of the most rewarding parts of his job.

Before Wednesday’s opening match, MLS Season Pass correspondent Taylor Twellman asked MLS Commissioner Don Garber about the lockout. Garber, in part, said “I don’t even know what it is that they want at this point.” Listen to his response in the interview here:

“I can’t remember, in my 40 years in sports, of having a bargaining unit reach an agreement and not have their members support it,” Garber told the Associated Press. “Very disappointing.”

Garber told the AP that MLS remains hopeful that an agreement is struck, and said he was left to wonder if the rejection of the deal suggests “a disconnect between the members and their elected negotiators.”

“It almost seems as if this was intentional,” Garber said. “I don’t know how you get to a point where there’s a work stoppage and not know what it is that you’re disagreeing about. That’s frustrating. I imagine it’s frustrating for fans. It’s certainly frustrating for us, but we’ll see how it plays out.

“I will tell you that we are very prepared and are more than willing to manage this in a way that’s in the best interest of our players, our teams, the best interest of our fans.”

In a press release, PSRA said “MLS and PRO have chosen to mischaracterize the tentative agreement publicly, utilizing percentages rather than providing the necessary context.” PSRA said the following information has been misrepresented:

• The highest pay increases would have benefited few officials, not the whole membership. Averages are deceiving when workers are paid so little. For example, some officials are paid $2,000 for off-field work commitments. Increasing these 100% to $4,000 does not capture the increases in the workload and does not remotely keep up with the growth around them. Meanwhile, in the last 5 years, all referees have endured an additional 10% more days on the road.
• When divided by team, the increase in wage costs in the rejected agreement would have been less than $40,000 per team in the first year of the agreement. This amounts to MLS/PRO putting less than $1M total into new wages in the first year for the workgroup of approximately 100 officials.
• During negotiations, PRO rejected every comparator to referees across the world, instead comparing the referees to camera operators in terms of their value to the game. Meanwhile, now MLS is saying their offer is “among the highest in the world.” Contrasted with the referees of Germany, who are paid approximately 100,000 Euro base per season and 5,000 Euro per match, MLS/PRO’s offer was not remotely close to those kinds of wages.
• MLS/PRO’s offer would have kept travel benefits for the 490+ regular season matches each year mostly unchanged from 5 years ago. PRO’s touted “improvement” would cover less than 4.5% of matches of the entire season.
• MLS/PRO’s offer did not provide a proper health care plan or cost-effective benefits to 70 of the officials, as compared to benefits offered by serious employers to professional employees – especially those who live, train and work as athletes.

The first full slate of games is Saturday, Feb. 24, including FC Dallas’ opening match against San Jose Earthquakes.

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