College athletes could soon be walking the picket line and striking against their employers if their wage and other demands are not met, courtesy of a ruling today in a landmark case brought before the NLRB’s Chicago regional office.
The office’s regional director ruled that athletes at private colleges and universities are employees who can form labor unions and bargain over terms and conditions of employment. It’s the first ruling extending the right to organize to student athletes at a college or university
The charge to unionize was led by Kain Colter, a former quarterback at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, who testified before the board that playing football is a job, the labors from which colleges and universities make a bundle of money. Therefore, he urged, the athletes ought to have the right to collectively bargain over the terms of their employment.
The NLRB regional director agreed, writing: “It cannot be said the Employer’s scholarship players are “primarily students.”
This was just one stop in what promises to be a long legal odyssey. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has vowed to appeal, and the case will now go to the full board in Washington, D.C.
And for now the ruling applies only to student athletes at private universities like Northwestern–and not to public colleges such as state schools.
Another remaining question is what is the bargaining unit. Is it just the football players, or all athletes at Northwestern?
Stay tuned.
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