It was an narrow decision by the board, however, limited only to players covered by this particular case, the ruling said. Those votes will now be destroyed and those that favored unionization can not appeal the decision by the full NLRB.
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Northwestern football players can not attempt to unionize, the National Labor Relations Board announced Monday in a long-awaited decision that dismisses the petition.
This decision is narrowly focused to apply only to the players in this case and does not preclude reconsideration of this issue in the future.
Noting that the union drive helped force some changes that benefit players, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), whose district includes Northwestern, still said she is “sorry that the NLRB has decided against college athletes seeking a seat at the table”.
In January, those conferences voted to give their schools the option of offering scholarships that meet the cost of attendance, estimated to provide an additional $3,000 annually to student athletes.
Five NLRB members agreed on refusing to recognize the Northwestern group in a 19-page decision. This ruling prohibits those players from voting on the national level. “This ends a period of 60 years when the NCAA has knowingly established a pay-for-play system while using terms like “student-athlete” and “amateurism” to skirt labor laws”.
Buried on Page 23 of Northwestern University’s final brief filed with the National Labor Relations Board was the idea that the nation’s top labor authority should refuse to become involved in college athletics and should not even consider whether Wildcat football players could form a union. He appeared at a news conference for the College Athletes Players Association.
The National Labor Relations Boardmdismissed a request made by the Northwestern University football team to unionize.
“September 21, 2013: “QB Kain Colter, along with 10 other teammates plus players from Georgia and Georgia Tech, wear black wristbands with the hashtag “#APU” (All Players United) during games. In making that argument, the NLRB has effectively said that athletes aren’t employees because the NCAA says they aren’t employees, regardless as to the actual work they’re doing, ignoring the possibility that the NCAA’s rules are wrong in the first place.
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The NLRB presides over private sector employees. Now that the Board has ruled in favor of Northwestern, the ballots will not be counted. “The fact that the scholarship players are students who are also athletes receiving a scholarship to participate in what has traditionally been regarded as an extracuricular activity… materially sets them apart from the Board’s student precedent”. The organization cringed at the thought of players actually controlling their destiny – as did universities – and will drag its feet as long as it can before instituting meaningful reforms to govern hours, endorsement deals or health coverage. The state-run schools are overseen by individual state labor boards. The NLRB noted that the NCAA now allows schools to award guaranteed four-year scholarships instead of one-year renewable scholarships.
