Posted on 03/27/2014 8:45:05 AM PDT by Kaslin
The National Labor Relations Board in Chicago has decided that college athletes – who are getting a subsidized education and a shot at a multi-million dollar career – have the right to unionize as employees. The Labor backed effort to unionize college students who play games as an “education”, according to the Chicago NLRB, now have a seat at the “bargaining table” in college athletics… Because, obviously, consumers of higher education (AKA: “students”) don’t currently have any seat at the “bargaining table”.
The short story is that pockets of education consumers (which is the technical definition for individuals who voluntarily elect to attend private or public universities… ya know: “students”) who engage in sporting events feel they should have the same powers as, say, autoworkers. And now, the Labor Board has given the green-light to turning college sports into the athletic equivalent of General Motors… This will turn out great (just ask Detroit).
The board's decision indicates that there was enough evidence presented that the athletes are employees of (Northwestern University) -- getting paid in the form of scholarships, working between 20 and 50 hours per week and generating millions of dollars for their institutions.
So… Good news to all those MIT students, and doctoral candidates who generate millions of dollars in government funding for their universities: You can now unionize as well! … Apparently dedicating yourself to university activities for an arbitrary number of hours per week, and being “compensated” with scholarship opportunities, qualifies you as an “employee” capable of unionizing your peers. According to the NLRB, an “employee” is regarded as someone who operates under the direct control of a manager while being compensated for their work. Athletes fit that definition, according to their union friendly hacks in Chicago, because they are “compensated” with scholarships and are managed by coaches and university staff.
Strangely, the NLRB gave no ruling on medical students, or other scholarship recipients… But, I guess that’s because the National Spelling Bee doesn’t generate the same level of interest as a college football bowl game.
There are, quite obviously, two sides to this story. One side deals primarily with the union thugs that helped fund the legal effort to recognize students as “employees” capable of unionizing… The other side of the story, is a group of students who feel that a free education and the opportunity to play a game (that may net billions of dollars in professional wages after graduation) isn’t good enough for their entitled sense of self-worth.
Students, primarily guided by the Labor-backed Northwestern quarterback Kain Colter, have been fighting for larger scholarships (because paying for education is “so 20th century”), and the possibility of wages (because opportunity is good enough for aspiring teachers, doctors, and engineers… but not football players). Naturally, seeing an opportunity to capitalize on impressionable due-paying Democrat-funding members, Labor Unions rushed to back Colter’s legal fight. (Maybe we should allow little leagues to unionize… After all, little league football is big fundraising for many rural school districts.)
The main issue – as is evidenced by the NLRB’s refusal to acknowledge interning students and other scholarship recipients as “employees” – seems to be that athletics raise quite a bit of money for universities. And, apparently, it is “unfair” that these college students don’t see any direct dividends from that revenue (assuming you ignore their scholarships, classrooms, training equipment, and life experience).
This means that, in the end, the decision leaves Northwestern University with only two practical options outside of appeal: They could stop raising revenue off of their excellent competitive sport programs; or they could begin paying their students…
Of course, a lack of revenue will quickly bring an end to their sports program, and therefore leave numerous students with no opportunity for higher education. Likewise, considering students as employees will quickly result in diminishing scholarships, and fewer educational opportunities for “athletic employees” (such as business classes, sports-medicine, or financial planning)… College sports will, essentially, devolve into a minor league football circuit that raises roughly the same revenue as competitive Ping-Pong tournaments.
Unions, the American Left, and the National Labor Relations Board, have once again done what they do best: They have plundered and pillaged institutions that dare to provide a service or good while making a profit… And they have done it all in the name of enlisting a few more due-paying members for Labor Unions.
Apparently, unionizing the staff wasn’t good enough. Now we’re targeting the kids as well.
Strangely, the NLRB gave no ruling on medical students, or other scholarship recipients…
strangely..indeed
How would this affect things like academic expulsion or graduation?
Under the actual Constitution, any special legal recognition of unions is absent. All “labor” law and Federal agencies have to go. They are inherently corrupt and corrupting, and always have been.
One analyst said yesterday this could bring the end to big time college football since only about 20-25 schools actually make money on their programs.
I have always said that these were semi-pro athletes. Now can we treat them as such, like paying taxes on all their crap they get!
I like college football, I used to love it. But I have seen up close that for many schools, sports trump academics every time. Even though they often lose money at it.
Could the university badminton player on athletic scholarship file a grievance on a low grade? If the food in the student cafeteria is too salty, could this be taken to arbitration? The possibilities are endless.
Indeed, the lowered standards are pathetic. A 2.0 high school GPA, really? No one with that deserves to “study” at the D-1 level. Let them go to juco or colleges with lesser academics and either work their way to transfe or “graduate” with those degrees. Big time college isn’t for everyone, star athlete or not.
The end of college level football as we know it...............what’s next? Baseball? Swim team? Gymnastics?......................BAND?.....................
One time at Band Camp..................
I hope every team beats Northwestern by 50, before they drop their shitty team (NW says that they will drop their team if this is not appealed.)
One thing that many forget is that this ruling only applies to private colleges and does not include the vast majority of colleges which are State Schools. Also, even if it did apply to State schools, the SEC schools are Right to Work States and can tell any Union to pound sand and take their communist ass back North where it belongs.
This ruling will be appealed and tied up in the courts for years. Meanwhile, the libs are already messing up the NFL (people suing because they were hurt playing football, calling someone a fag will get you penalized on the field, making kickoffs meaningless etc.) and college is next on the agenda. If this wins, it will ruin college football for a myriad of reasons and I will have to find another hobby to occupy my time during the Fall and early Winter.
If you like College football you better hope it fails.
Outside of the likes of Notre Dame, USC, UT, OU, and Alabama do you think that Cal Fullerton, Northwestern, Ball State, Indiana, Central Florida and similar schools actually turn a profit or at least break even?
I believe that this is a direct violation of NCAA rules.
College sports accounting is a lot like movie business accounting. Besides, it's part of the advertising budget for recruiting and raising alumni contributions.
One of my many interesting offspring scholarshipped himself to an Ivy League outfit to play hockey. Whereupon he was injured permanently and will never foul another hockey player again(hockey, you know?) They changed the deal a bit, but essentially let him finish on their dime + a campus job in the athletic department.
Now take a decidedly non-Ivy League football/BBall player in a Big-10 program who majors in something like African-American Theory of Cursive Rap Communications and gets permanently injured. The "School," IMNVHO owes this kid (and his families and by sophomore year multiple offspring) something. The boy helped make'em some serious money. At the very least they should have some form of disability insurance for him; some way to financially ease him gracefully into the real world or the Obama Administration.
My olde school once had a big time sports program .... but now has "student-athletes." Yeah, we'll still scholarship you, but in addition to your athletic ability, you have to have academic qualifications, as does any other Freshman, and we don't have any crap courses (well not too many) either.
College should not be just a housing and training facility for the NFL, or any other professional sport. It's college, not the minor leagues.
So, are these “student-athletes” gonna pay all the back taxes they owe on these wages?
There are many hidden costs in this proposal.
1. What union is pushing this? It can make a big difference.
2. There will have to be some serious bookkeeping done to accomplish this correctly.
3. “Student/athletes” will have to produce a payroll time card, with correct information on it. Fraudulently presenting a card can get you fired. This income MUST be taxes or those who get taxed for their income will be furious.
4. All those FICA & Medicare taxes have to be matched by the ‘employer’—the school. There is also Federal Unemployment & state Unemployment taxes to be paid.
5. There will have to be ‘Workmen’s Comp’ insurance purchased. Could be a very high premium, since this sport has been defined in recent years as ‘very dangerous’. Who is going to pay for all the extra medical records involved?
6. IF a student is also getting a ‘free education & other college perks’, then IMO, that should count as income. Their participation in the ‘UNION’ is a direct connection to their ability to play athletic games on behalf of the college. The college is giving them a ‘scholarship based on their athletic ability’. The 2 activities are inseparable.
7. News reports state that these ‘athletes’ want a ‘health’ policy which will carry them thru their entire life if they get injuries. Since many of these ‘college’ students have been playing sports since they were 6 years old or such, who will be able to determine what injury they got at what time in their life? Did a 45 year old ‘ex-athlete’ from Northwestern (25 years from now) get his original injury in Pop Warner football—high school football or in college football or in Pro football??? There will be absolutely no way to know. The litigation will bankrupt the colleges and continue for years.
8. NO ONE is requiring ANY of these ‘athletes’ to play ANY sport. For many, it is a ticket out of a bad part of the community. Some make it all the way out—and some revert & never get cleanly out. BUT—that is no reason to punish the institution that is providing you a pathway to that escape.
9. Who pays for all the equipment these ‘athletes’ use? That isn’t cheap. So they can pay for their own equipment & maintain it, also. Same for transportation to games and other travel expenses.
10. How many small colleges will just shut down all their athletic programs—for both men & women? The burden will be too expensive.
11. How many colleges will demand that all these ‘athletes’ MUST do all their own homework & cannot be tutored to ‘stay in the program’??? Since ‘grading on the curve’ is so popular in colleges since the early 70’s, how many of these ‘athletes’ are actually capable of having a real career outside of sports IF they do ‘graduate’???
There are many blind pitfalls in this idea.
I see another attempt at an entitlement program which is ‘reparations’ in disguise. It is disgusting, IMO.
IF these colleges go along with such antics, I will not be buying any tickets to their events or supporting them in any way. No booster events—NADA. I will find something else to watch on TV.
As for how ‘dangerous’ this all is, try driving at 200 MPH or higher in a race car. NO ONE is holding a gun to those heads, either. They don’t ask for a union, either.
How many of these ‘athletes’ will want to be a coach someday? Who will want to hire them after they have stirred up such a hornet’s nest? I certainly would NOT.
Will they automatically be expelled from the union when they ‘graduate’ or leave school early to join the pros?
IF there are only about 85 football team members in each program, it will be too expensive to continue the whole thing.
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