NLRB nixes college football players union, declines to hear election petition
Putting an end, at least for now, to an effort to unionize college football players at Northwestern University, the National Labor Relations Board on Monday declined to assert jurisdiction over the group’s union election petition.
In its unanimous ruling, the NLRB said that to do so would have implications far beyond Northwestern, potentially upsetting the competitive balance in college sports, since other teams are not unionized. Also problematic would be a potential conflict between the terms of a union contract and college athletic league rules and policies and the fact that the NLRB has jurisdiction only over private employers, creating a possible disconnect with public universities known for their powerhouse teams, the New York Times (reg. req.) reports.
“Every school in the Big Ten, except Northwestern, is a state-run institution,” the NLRB notes in its decision. “As the NCAA and conference maintain substantial control over individual teams, the Board held that asserting jurisdiction over a single team would not promote stability in labor relations across the league.”
Bloomberg, the Chicago Tribune, ESPN, USA Today and the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) also have stories.
Ballots from a 2014 football team union election at Northwestern will now be destroyed uncounted. Today’s NLRB decision, however, may not be the end of the unionization efforts.
“This decision is narrowly focused to apply only to the players in this case and does not preclude reconsideration of this issue in the future,” the NLRB points out.
The would-be union for the Northwestern football players is the College Athletes Players Association. It has former UCLA linebacker Ramogi Huma at the helm and financial support from United Steelworkers.
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “In ‘revolutionary’ ruling, NLRB says football players are employees of Northwestern, can unionize”
