“I am trying to understand who is on the hook to pay? Colleges can offer scholarships and living money, but they can’t outright pay players as in a wage.
The NCAA is now entirely feckless. What a mess.”
It’s worse than what you write:
True, these folks CANNOT receive pay. The SEIU can provide them union benefits BUT ONLY IF THEY PAY UNION DUES! How will they pay?
I was a member in good standing of the ILWU (Longshoreman Union) Local #37 for 5 years.
I was forced to join the union and pay union dues in order to work my summer job while in college (working in a salmon cannery on Bristol Bay, AK).
I am NOT a fan of unions...
There’s been attempts to organize graduate students in the past. If there ever was a more put upon group in the university setting its graduate students. You can almost see the need.
Way back when I was in grad school, I was in a union the UMW - United Mineworkers. I made enough from mining to supplement my paltry stipend and live by myself. It was hard but I did it.
That was not my first union experience. In high school I was forced to join the grocer’s union to be able to gag, stack & stock groceries. The union dues & “flower fund” bit heavily into my pay.
I am not by any means a union fan!