After a group of Korean professional baseball players from the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) formally announced they had formed a player union last Friday, the KBO and team presidents held an emergency meeting the following morning in Seoul and expelled all union members from the league.
At the morning meeting, Deputy Secretary General Lee Sang Il read a short prepared statement which said that all 75 professional players who had joined the newly formed union were, effective immediately, unconditionally released from league service. He went on to say that the season will go ahead and open on schedule without the unionized players.
The move came as a bit of a surprise to players contacted immediately following the announcement at KBO headquarters. Within 15 minutes, one player contacted by the Korea Times expressed shock that he was suddenly out of a job this season.