In a major step forward for college athletes’ rights, the Dartmouth men’s basketball team voted 13-2 on Tuesday in favor of unionizing.
The historic election is the latest event to challenge the founding principles of the NCAA, which has long prided itself on protecting the concept of amateurism in college sports. Now, with the NCAA engaged in several simultaneous legal battles over its relationships with athletes, that appears to be about to change.
While the unionization process is far from complete, Tuesday’s vote could mark a turning point as the decision reverberates throughout the college athletics world.
So, how did we get here, what is the situation now, and what happens next? Here’s what to know.
How we vote on Tuesday
There has been a broad push for years to treat college athletes as employees, but this concrete effort began last September when 15 Dartmouth men’s basketball players submitted a petition to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) , requiring the establishment of a trade union through a trade union. The New England chapter of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is a union representing approximately 2 million workers in the United States and Canada.
The school opposed the move, but NLRB regional director Laura Sacks ruled in February that the players were employees and could move forward with union elections.
Sacks’ ruling held that Dartmouth players were employees because they performed work that benefited the school, the school had significant control over their work, and the players were compensated through equipment, housing, tickets and other means.
“Because Dartmouth College has the authority to control the work of the Dartmouth men’s basketball team and the players perform that work in exchange for compensation, I find that the basketball players petitioned are within the meaning of the act,” Sacks wrote. employees.”
Why are Dartmouth players unionizing?
Unionization will allow players to collectively bargain with Dartmouth on salary, scheduling and other game-related policies and conditions.
Dartmouth players Cade Haskins and Romeo Millhill, both juniors on the team, said of Tuesday’s vote, “It goes without saying that we, as students, can be both. Campus workers, who are union members.”
“Dartmouth appears to be stuck in the past. It’s time for the amateur era to end,” Haskins and Millhill said in a statement. “We call on the Dartmouth Board of Trustees and Chancellor Belloc to live out the truth of what she says herself and foster ‘brave spaces’ in which ‘changing one’s mind based on new evidence is a good thing.'”
They added that they hope to “create a less exploitative business model for college sports” and will continue to discuss forming a union with other Dartmouth and Ivy League athletes in the coming months and work together to advocate Athletes’ rights and welfare.
Isn’t this what happened in the northwest?
Northwestern University football players also pushed to unionize and obtained a similar ruling at the regional level in 2014, but their case was overturned at the national level after the National Labor Relations Board ruled it could not assert its jurisdiction.
Because the NLRB only applies to the private sector, public schools are not subject to its decisions. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) determined in 2015 that because Northwestern is part of the Big Ten Conference, which at the time was a conference of public schools, a national ruling on players’ ability to unionize would not advance the labor union The stability of the relationship, as circumstances vary from state to state. Labor law within the scope of the conference.
The key difference this time: Dartmouth is a member of the all-private Ivy League, and it won’t have the same competitive equity case as the Big Ten.
What does Tuesday’s vote mean for college athletes beyond Dartmouth?
While Tuesday’s vote doesn’t open the door for all other college athletes to be considered employees, it is an important step in one of several potential landmark athletes’ rights cases across the country.
as CompetitorIn a recent story examining the impact of athletes becoming employees, Nicole Auerbach wrote, “A victory for Dartmouth’s players union effort could inspire other private schools to organize in conferences that The school has a more diverse membership than an all-private Ivy League school.”
Where is the labor struggle still going on?
Auerbach has also previously noted that the Dartmouth ruling could be cited in various ongoing lawsuits across the country related to college athlete status. She pointed to Johnson v. NCAA (arguing whether athletes were hourly employees), House v. NCAA (fighting over back wages for athletes who played before 2021 with similar names and likenesses) or any of the California NLRB cases. Could disrupt the college sports business.
In California’s NLRB case, if an ongoing trial of unfair labor practice charges confirms that USC, the Pac-12 and the NCAA should be considered the athletes’ joint employers, then all college athletes can join the union regardless of where they are. Which state where you live or what type of school you attend.
What’s next?
After Tuesday’s vote, Dartmouth filed a request for review with the NLRB. The review, and a possible appeal to the federal court afterward, could mean formal recognition of the union and collective bargaining is still months away.
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