New York CNN Business —The Major League Baseball Players Association is joining the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation that includes unions representing a total of 12.5 million members. Recently, it announced plans to add about 5,400 minor league players, the majority of whom have signed cards requesting union representation. The announcement was made Wednesday by Tony Clark, a retired Major League player and executive director of the players union, and Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO. The union also won the right to binding salary arbitration for players who haven’t yet qualified for free agency. The MLBPA will join several other sports unions in the AFL-CIO, including the National Football League Players Association, the National Women’s Soccer League Players Association, the United Soccer League Players Association, the US Women’s National Team Players Association and the United Football Players Association, which was recently organized by the United Steelworkers, another AFL-CIO affiliate, to represent members of the upstart US Football League.

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