If players weren’t required to join the union, would coaches show favoritism to those players not seen as “rabble-rousers”?
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The NCAA likewise expressed its support, saying, via chief legal officer Donald Remy, “This ruling allows us to continue to make progress for the college athlete without risking the instability to college sports that the NLRB recognized might occur under the labor petition”.
Accordingly, unless another union (like the Steelworkers) generously agreed to carry them free of charge, these athletes, in order to defray administrative costs, would have to collect dues and initiation fees, hold elections, conduct meetings, and deal with any “renegade” player who loved football, loved being on scholarship, but detested the idea of being forced to join a union. In March of that year, a regional NLRB director in Chicago ruled that the football players on scholarship were “employees” entitled to unionize under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
Subsequent to that decision, Northwestern team members voted on unionization. Because of the Board’s August 17 decision to dismiss the representation petition, those ballots won’t be counted, according to Northwestern’s statement.
But it would be instructive if they were, because it is, after all, the players whose interests were in play. However, the central question to determining whether or not college athletes have the right to unionize is whether or not they are employees of their school. Colter maintained that because of time demands players are denied other opportunities, including the chance to pursue some time-consuming educational pursuits.
Big Ten schools published similar lists [of reforms] last year as well, and the leaders of the ACC, Big 12 and SEC have all gotten behind more money and better continuing medical care for athletes. Universities can make a hefty chunk of change from having strong college sports teams, particularly football.
HUMA: Well, really it’s to get a seat at the table for college athletes.
What’s next on the issue of “employee” at the NLRB?
Not surprisingly, Northwestern appealed the decision to the full national board, which announced in April 2014 that it would review the ruling.
The issue, however, is not completely closed.
Both Northwestern and the National Collegiate Athletic Association applauded the NLRB’s latest move.
But any NLRB ruling on private Northwestern’s less-than-powerhouse football team would have had no effect on the 87% of the 125 Division I football schools that are public institutions.
Huma and former Northwestern quarterback Kain Colter, who became the face of the unionization movement, said the bid to unionize helped push along reforms such as more long-term health coverage of the college athletes, guaranteed four-year scholarships for athletes and the removal of NCAA restrictions on meals for athletes.
SIEGEL: The NCAA, of course, insists that they are student-athletes; they’re not employees. Citing Oregon and Stanford as examples of differing values within the same conference, Swarbrick has speculated that events could cause the two schools to affiliate with separate associations as college sports evolves.
Kevin C. McCormick, an attorney with Whiteford, Taylor & Preston in Baltimore, Maryland, also said he wasn’t surprised by the decision since it’s the NCAA and conferences that are in control and the NLRB doesn’t have jurisdiction over public-sector schools. Nonetheless, it is the inevitable product of our entertainment and technological culture that can bring much-sought-after sports programming to audiences in the many millions.
LeRoy says college athletes could also turn to antitrust litigation as a model for seeking damages in the future.
Athletes in all the major professional sports – baseball, basketball, football and hockey – are unionized and have benefited immensely from that status.
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The nation’s college sports establishment can breathe a little easier this morning.
