Stephen A. Smith Righteously Rips The NLRB For Punting On Northwestern Case

Given today’s hostile labor environment, it’s hard enough maintaining institutional discipline in a traditional union, much less in a bunch of college kids, many of whom, one short year ago, were a bunch of high school kids.

The ruling dismissed a stunning decision in March 2014 by a regional NLRB director in Chicago who said football players with scholarships are effectively school employees and entitled to organize. Those ballots were sealed during the appeal and will now be destroyed.

Matt Mitten, a sports law professor at Marquette University, and Andrew Zimbalist, a sports economist at Smith College, both said they expect the issue to ultimately land at the U.S. Supreme Court, delaying final resolution for a couple of years.

Why did the board refrain from exercising power in this case when, in recent years, it has inserted itself so aggressively in areas not traditionally thought to be within the scope of its responsibilities, such as social media and at-will policies in the non-union workplace? Weighing in, the board argued, would “not serve to promote stability in labor relations”. The board concluded that because it governs only private employers, and because the vast majority of major college football programs are at public institutions, a ruling “would not promote stability in labor relations”.

Had the NLRB granted Northwestern’s scholarship players the right to bargain collectively as a union, the implications for employee benefits and workers compensation would have been significant.

The board “left the problem at the doorstep and didn’t even put it in the house for consideration”, LeRoy said.

In a statement Monday, Ramogi Huma, president of the College Athletes Players Association, said the decision is “not a loss, but it is a loss of time”.

Football players at Northwestern University may have lost a bid to unionize on Monday, but a broader legal challenge has targeted the practice of excluding college athletes from sharing in the multibillion dollar bonanza they help generate. It also prompted a national debate on the proper role of college athletics that has led to long-overdue measures by the Pac-12, Big Ten, SEC and other conferences to address the issues in the Northwestern complaint.

CAPA has yet to make a statement, but several sources told the Tribune last week that they are unlikely to appeal. After official hearings in front of the Chicago chapter of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the players were granted the right to vote on whether or not to unionize despite objections from their university and the NCAA. That would, it says, create the competitive imbalances. A lot of the things that we’ve been fighting for have been adopted. In its ruling, the NLRB recognized the NCAA continually evolves to better support college athletes. Testimony in the Northwestern case showed the two sports are highly profitable, but that the players are barred from negotiating for a share of those profits. “This is a setback for CAPA, but not at all an end to their efforts”, LeRoy added.

Cubbage stated the college would work with the athletes to deal with questions concerning the long-term well being impression of intercollegiate sports activities, together with offering further educational help and different alternatives.

Students who attend college on athletic scholarships have made a commitment to their schools. Second, by citing the NCAA’s own oversight over the 125 bowl-eligible schools-and relying on that oversight rather than making a ruling on the issues presented by the so-called student athletes themselves-the board elevated the nonprofit NCAA into a de facto definer and arbiter of labor rules and conditions at the schools.

The lawsuit, filed by the prominent sports lawyer Jeffrey Kessler on behalf of the players poses a threat to the NCAA’s “amateur” model, since it seeks a free market for athletes’ pay.