The NLRB says that the Dartmouth men’s basketball team must hold a union election.
On Monday, the National Labor Relations Board approved a union election for members of the Dartmouth College men’s basketball team. This could have huge effects on the future of college sports.
Last year, players on the basketball team asked the NLRB to let them join a local branch of the powerful union known as SEIU that works with other groups that Dartmouth.
Recently, there has been a rise in union activism on campus at Dartmouth and other universities. Leaders in the effort to form a labor organization for the men’s basketball team had publicly said that this was an inspiration.
Laura Sacks, the regional director of the NLRB in Boston, said that the players are workers beneath the National Labor Relations Act or can therefore form a union.
This is because “school officials control the work performed on the Dartmouth men’s basketball team, along with the players do that work in return for compensation.”
Dartmouth says that the money it gives to athletes is based on their needs and not because they deserve it. No, Dartmouth doesn’t provide athletic awards. Neither do any other Ivy League schools.
Sacks didn’t say when the election would be, but union votes usually happen a few weeks or months after an order like this.
The decision came after a while after a hearing in October. This is an unusually long time between events, which may be because the case involved sensitive issues.
A lawyer for the organizers, Jake Krupski, said, “The players are very happy with this decision.” “We believe additional athletes will see the chances this ruling creates and be motivated to do the same.”
Two basketball players, Cade Haskins and Romeo Myrthil, said in a statement, “This is a big step ahead for college football players, and we can’t wait to see why this decision affects college sports across the country.”
An NLRB regional director ordered a union election for Dartmouth’s men’s basketball team on Monday.
This was a historic decision that might alter the relationship between Division I college athletes as well as their schools.
The players are employees under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), according to Laura Sacks of Region 1 (Boston). This is because the players do work for pay. These people are, in other words, students and workers.
Dartmouth can and most likely will ask the agency’s board within Washington, D.C., to look over Sacks’ order again.
This will start an appeals process that could last for years and end with a hearing in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.
The players can vote on whether or not to form a union before the review. They are represented by SEIU Local 560, a labor organization that also works for other Dartmouth employees, such as classmates of the players who work in dining services.
The election has not been set in stone yet, but it is likely to happen within the next month. At the time, the board also said that other parts of the government, like Congress, should look into the matter.
It’s not the first time that a regional director has found that a Division I team works for their school.
In 2014, Peter Ohr, who was the NLRB’s regional director for Chicago at the time, came to the same conclusion about Northwestern football players.
The school’s appeal to the agency’s board was successful, and the board voted 5-0 in support of the university, saying that it would not be possible to treat some college competitors as employees and not others.
This is because the NLRA only applies to private employers, while state labor laws apply to athletes at public universities. Because of these and other things, it looks like they are working as employees.
College athletes beginning at Dartmouth and other D-I schools say they spend more than 40 hours a week on sports, which includes planning their classes so they don’t conflict with their team, turning in timesheets, and doing fundraising jobs where they have to meet with potential donors.