Milwaukee Brewers commit to paying employees through May 29

As the current pandemic with COVID-19 continues, baseball is still shut down and will be for a while. With many employees out of work, concerns about pay came up for these workers. MLB responded as every team committed $1 million to help pay their workers during this time. That gave workers an initial contribution of funds, though with the pandemic continuing and no definitive end in sight, there was still a lot of uncertainty around it. The Brewers helped clarify that for the near future, as they have committed to continue to pay their employees through at least May 29.

This will help ease the concerns of many workers, who will now be paid for at least the next six weeks. In addition, Adam McCalvy reports that several Brewers have stepped up to contribute an additional $300,000 into the team’s initial pool of $1 million to help pay these workers. Ryan Braun led the group of players by contributing $100,000, and Bob Uecker contributed $50,000 as well. Christian Yelich, Lorenzo Cain, Corey Knebel, Josh Lindblom, and Brent Suter have also contributed to this pool.

The players also have other efforts underway, with several players helping in both Milwaukee and California. Braun and Yelich helped fund meals for hospital workers on Easter Sunday, and the California Strong organization has also helped fund meals for Feeding America. More plans are underway as well, such as purchasing personal protective equipment for hospital workers.

In Adam McCalvy’s article, he has a quote from Bob Uecker, who explains the importance of taking care of these workers during this time:

“This is more than supporting those who work at Miller Park. In my 50 years with the team, I have become friends with many of these individuals, and some of them have been around the ballpark nearly as long as me. We’re all limited in what we can do to return to our normal lives, but we want to help people be as comfortable as possible until we can get back to starting up.”

There’s still many more questions to answer in the coming weeks, such as pay for players (both major and minor league), how to respond if more time is needed before workers can return to work, and how to get baseball going again once it is deemed safe to do so. For now, the workers of these baseball teams will be taken care of and are not forgotten.