2009.04.28

South Korea's professional baseball players said Tuesday they will unionize to legally protect their interests, a move analysts fear may dampen the sport that is beginning to build popularity in the country, Yonhap News reported.

"South Korean baseball gained a world-class reputation after reaching the finals of the World Baseball Classic in March. But the environment that our players are in has not changed," Son Min-han, president of the Korea Professional Baseball Players' Association, told reporters at a press conference in downtown Seoul.

"Our demands to start negotiations for players' interests have been ignored by the Korea Baseball Organization. Now is the time for establishing a union based on the current laws."

The KPBPA was launched in 2000 to speak for the rights and interests of South Korean baseball players. It represents all 463 professional players registered with the KBO. The KBO, founded in 1982 and now having eight teams, had not allowed any official organization of players, but approved the KPBPA in 2000 on condition that it remain a private organization. The KPBPA was not entitled to sit at the negotiating table with the KBO because it did not have legal status.

"It has been 10 years since the association was founded, but nothing has improved," Kwon Si-hyeong, general director of the group, said. "Representatives from eight clubs have agreed that it is time to create the union."

He demanded that the KBO allow players to employ agents to deal with contracts and ban unilateral trade against players' will. Under current KBO regulations, athletes cannot have agents handle wage deals on their behalf or defy orders to move to another team.

Kwon said that an organizing committee will be formed in the near future and will poll players on their opinions.