Few options for activists after college labor union blocked

In a massive blow for the rights of student athletes, the National Labor Relations Board denied the Northwestern football team the right to unionize by “declining jurisdiction” in the case – effectively saying they chose not to rule on the matter but would allow for future cases to be heard if the landscape changes.

“We applaud our players for bringing national attention to these important issues, but we believe strongly that unionization and collective bargaining are not the appropriate methods to address the concerns raised by student-athletes”, it said.

Kurt Vonnegut’s first novel, Player Piano, imagines an America where society is ruled by machines and college football players are on salary.

A sticking point for the NLRB was supporting a decision that could “upset the competitive balance” and would impact public universities, which is not an area where they hold jurisdiction.

Quarterback Kain Colter appeared at a information convention for the School Athletes Gamers Affiliation, flanked by leaders of the United Steelworkers union, which lent its organizing experience and presumably helped bankroll the union drive.

– April 5, 2014: Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald publicly calls on his players to vote against forming a union. Student athletes are technically students, but in many ways-particularly when it comes to the money they generate for their schools-their relationships to the colleges and universities are significantly different from non-student athletes.

“It’s like they had a hot potato tossed into their laps, and they took a year and a half of deliberations and said, ‘We’re going to toss it back, ‘” he said.

Rather than weighing in on whether the original decision regarding student-athletes being university employees should stand, the full NLRB instead “exercised its discretion not to assert jurisdiction and dismissed the representation petition filed by the union”.

The labor dispute goes to the heart of American college sports, where universities and conferences reap billions of dollars, mostly through broadcast contracts, by relying on amateurs who are not paid.

Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick says his school would be unwilling to participate in big-time sports if the Northwestern case caused a paradigm shift within college sports, but that schools on the other side of a “cultural divide” might be comfortable with a semi-pro model.

The Board also was concerned that its ruling essentially would, at least initially, apply to just one Division 1 school, Northwestern University, which “would not promote stability in labor relations across the league”.

“The door’s not closed”, Huma said. But those ballots were sealed during the appeal and will now be destroyed without ever being counted. A month later, players cast secret ballots on whether to unionize.

Beneath U.S. regulation, an worker is considered somebody who, amongst different issues, receives compensation for a service and is beneath the direct management of managers. Additionally, officials from the school expressed confusion as to why Northwestern was the focus of this push, given that Northwestern isn’t generally regarded as a football powerhouse. And Northwestern might not have been the poster child of a school to gain sympathy – it’s an expensive private school where those who don’t make it to the NFL (which is most of the team, whose bragging rights often lie within their GPA rankings) often have entry into jobs on Wall Street or other lucrative careers.

In a statement, the Indianapolis-based NCAA portrayed the board’s ruling as recognition that it’s trying to improve conditions for athletes. Having a union could have allowed the athletes to pursue greater medical benefits, and given them a more powerful voice in terms of things like practice hours, and being actually you know compensated for the time spent on their athletic obligations.