Pro baseball clubs, players end dispute over union

The month-long dispute between Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) club owners and the players¡¯ association came to an end Saturday when the two sides reached a settlement thanks to government mediation.

Representatives of the KBO, club owners and the players association signed a five-point agreement in a meeting chaired by Culture-Tourism Minister Kim Han-Gill at the ministry building in Seoul.

The pact calls for, among other things, the cancellation of the club owners¡¯ decision to release six leading members of the players¡¯ association and the resignation of the players' union's sitting executives.

The conflict between the owners and the players¡¯ association members was triggered by the association's decision to seek registration as an official labor union on Dec. 18 last year.

As a result of the compromise between the two sides, the upcoming KBO season will go ahead as scheduled and players on the league's eight teams will be able to begin training at home or abroad and participate in pre-season games. Negotiations on players' salaries will also go ahead.

The six leading members of the association, who had faced possible expulsion from the league, are Song Jin-Woo, Ma Hae-Young, Yang Jun-Hyuck, Shim Jeong-Su, Park Chung-Shik and Choi Tae-Won.

The agreement also calls for the prevention of any kind of reprisals against players who join the players¡¯ association. Under the pact, association members are to elect player representatives by the end of January.

The agreement provides that members of the association shall be players registered with the KBO and that any player shall have the right to decide whether to join.