KOREAN PLAYERS MOVING TO FORM UNION

After being rebuffed numerous times to meet with Korea Baseball Organization upper management and teams, players in South Korea are moving forward with plans to form a union. Korea Professional Baseball Players Association president Min-han Son announced the plan at a recent press conference in Seoul. Son pitches for the Lotte Giants. The players association was formed ten years ago, but has never acted as a collective bargaining unit with KBO teams.

Predictably, the KBO has objected. League spokesman Jin-hyung Lee told The Korea Times, “The clubs are making a deficit. If we make a profit, we can have a dialogue with them.” Another unnamed KBO spokesman said, “Professional baseball players are not workers, but individual businessmen…Individual businessmen cannot make a union.” Son replied, “Our legal support team confirmed that to form a union is not against the law.”

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions says it will support a players union.