Northwestern players get union vote

ESPN ^ | 3/26/2014 | Brian Bennett

[iowamark]

In a potentially game-changing moment for college athletics, the Chicago district of the National Labor Relations Board ruled on Wednesday that Northwestern football players qualify as employees of the university and can unionize.

NLRB regional director Peter Sung Ohr cited the players' time commitment to their sport and the fact that their scholarships were tied directly to their performance on the field as reasons for granting them union rights.

Ohr wrote in his ruling that the players "fall squarely within the [National Labor Relations] Act's broad definition of 'employee' when one considers the common law definition of 'employee.'"

Ohr ruled that the players can hold a vote on whether they want to be represented by the College Athletes Players Association, which brought the case to the NLRB along with former Wildcats quarterback Kain Colter and the United Steelworkers union...

Northwestern issued a statement shortly after the ruling saying it would appeal to the full NLRB in Washington, D.C.

"While we respect the NLRB process and the regional director's opinion, we disagree with it," the statement read. "Northwestern believes strongly that our student-athletes are not employees, but students. Unionization and collective bargaining are not the appropriate methods to address the concerns raised by student-athletes."

In a statement, NCAA chief legal officer Donald Remy said: "While not a party to the proceeding, the NCAA is disappointed that the NLRB Region 13 determined the Northwestern football team may vote to be considered university employees. We strongly disagree with the notion that student-athletes are employees."

[Lou Budvis]

The NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, and major conference college football and men’s basketball are nothing but giant entertainment conglomerates like Disney. I like watching them, but they as relevant as a Hollywood blockbuster. The only difference is that you hope that the end is not scripted. If someone is making millions of dollars off of my play, I’d want money too.

[mason-dixon]

It will be OVER for the NCAA down the road.

[Pan_Yan]

The NCAA, the conferences and the schools have been playing with fire for a long time now with their merchandising, marketing, and billion dollar broadcasting deals. Once they started to sell jerseys with peoples names on them and video games with players' likenesses the trap was set. Now the former players are demanding a share of revenue they produced.

The schools created this monster. The NLRB and it's cozy union buddies have just thrown open the cage door and let the monster loose.

The NCAA knew EA Sports had real players 'hidden' in college football games

Ed O'Bannon vs. the NCAA: The saga continues

[montag813]

All true, cept you missed the part where they get a free education! (Sharing in the profits by way of an education)

They get that because of the dollar value the school places on their talent.

[gusty]

One way to stop this madness would be to join the rest of the world in how sports is organized. The United States should decouple sports and education like the rest of the world. In Canada, you want to play in the NHL you play in Junior Hockey, the CHL leagues, not in college(in Canada that is.) My daughter's college, McGill, has a good hockey team. The players are mostly guys who did not make the pros from Juniors and some who washed out of the AHL or ECHL. They are in college to get an education and hockey is an extracurricular activity. In the UK, you aspire to play for Man U, you do not go to a university to further your soccer career. Instead you join one of the clubs in your teenage years and work to move up in their system to the first team. Let the NFL develop it's own development system independent of the colleges. Now they have it for free. Let the NBA expand the D league to accommodate the influx of more 18 year olds who do not belong in college. MLB can bring back D,C,and B leagues back to the minor leagues, like they had back in the 50’s. When it comes to sports and education being linked, the US is an outlier.

[1010RD]

Yep, anything that kills the NCAA cartel is a good thing. The NFL should set up farm teams. There are way more than enough tax-payer funded, empty stadiums in the country.

[hinckley buzzard]

Using the cited rationale, students on academic scholarships can equally be deemed to be "employees" ie, based on the "time spent in their (studies) and the fact that scholarships are tied to "performance in the classroom..."

If this absurdity satnds it will mean the end of college ball altogether at many institutions. There will be a lot more cabbies and drivers of Pepsi trucks available, and a lot fewer young black college students if this takes hold.

[Colonel_Flagg]

Sanctions against whom? The University and NCAA are on the same side.

[TurboZamboni]

True. The NCAA is a non profit. How many other non profits are unionized?

They should lose their non profit status if they unionize.