NEW YORK -- In a move that may reveal its remaining strength, the Major League Umpires Association called for its members to gather in Chicago on Monday, the day after the regular season.

National League umpire Jerry Crawford, the union's president, gave no indication of the meeting's agenda, saying in a Sept. 22 memo that "the purpose of the meeting is to discuss union business."

The union's strategy of mass resignations backfired in July and cost one-third its members their jobs.

A dissident group led by American League umpires Joe Brinkman, John Hirschbeck and Dave Phillips is circulating cards to petition the National Labor Relations Board for a secret-ballot election to decertify the current union and form a new one.

There currently are 93 major league umpires, and a sign of the union's remaining influence will be how many show up for Monday's meeting. The dissident group last week claimed the support of more than 40 umpires, and a lawyer familiar with its activities said more umpires had joined in for a telephone conference call Monday.

Thus far, most AL umpires have supported the dissidents and nearly all NL umps have backed the union. The dissidents want Ron Shapiro, Cal Ripken's agent, to negotiate their next labor contract.

During the union's last meeting, held in Philadelphia on July 14, the group decided on a mass resignation strategy, a move umpires said at the time was designed to force an early start to negotiations for a labor contract to succeed the deal that expires Dec. 31.

About two dozens umps, nearly all in the AL, either failed to resign or quickly withdrew their resignations. All umps then tried to withdraw their resignations, but by then owners had hired 25 umpires from the minor leagues. Baseball then accepted the resignations of 22, effective Sept. 2.

Arbitrator Alan Symonette will hear the grievance the union filed to try to regain the jobs of the 22. Owners intend to ask him to dismiss the grievance, arguing matters of hiring and firing are not subject to arbitration under the labor contract.