Dartmouth basketball's push to unionize could spark sweeping changes across college sports

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In January of 2022, a group of Dartmouth students working in the school's dining halls formed a union. Their motivation: dissatisfaction with work shifts, pay and treatment.

WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 13: The Dartmouth Big Green lhuddle before during a college basketball game against the Georgetown Hoyas at the Capital One Arena on November 13, 2021 in Washington, DC. In January of 2022, a group of Dartmouth students working in the school’s dining halls formed a union. Their motivation: dissatisfaction with work shifts, pay and treatment.

Months after the dining hall student workers collectively bargained, members of the men’s basketball team hope to do the same., Dartmouth men's basketball players became the first college sports team to seek employment status and unionization since the Northwestern football players' failed effort in 2015.

The NLRB is the independent agency that enforces U.S. labor law as it relates to collective bargaining. The SEIU, a powerful and politically connected organization, represents nearly 2 million employees over 100 occupations. “It’s ironic that you have billions of dollars flowing through college football and it might be Dartmouth basketball that upends the system,” said Gabe Feldman, a Tulane sports law professor and an expert on such NCAA matters.

The movement has filtered to the state level, where two years ago, a bevy of state laws ushered in the era of name, image and likeness . NIL, a concept at first intended to compensate college players for brand endorsements, has evolved into a pay-for-play system where school donors are pooling millions in an effort to recruit and retain athletes.

Most recently, more than 13,000 members of the United Auto Workers union began a strike. The Writers Guild of America, representing over 11,000 screenwriters, have been on strike for four months. If the NLRB regional director in Boston recognizes Dartmouth players as employees, the group will then hold an election.

There is another difference between the Dartmouth filing and the Northwestern case, said Feldman. While Northwestern players received athletic scholarships, Ivy league schools do not offer such a benefit. Any decision from the NLRB regional director will be appealed to the four-person national board in Washington, DC., which for now holds a Democratic majority — a fact that is not insignificant. Liberal decision-makers would lean toward granting athletes employment rights.

“By definition, college athletes are employees under labor law,” NCPA director Ramogi Huma said in a previous interview. “They are skilled workers in their sport and are paid scholarships. They deserve the rights afforded to them under labor laws like every other American.”The answer to that question can be found in a situation that unfolded last summer in State College, Pennsylvania.

 

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Dartmouth men’s basketball players file NLRB petition to unionizeIf successful, the Dartmouth players would formally be considered employees of the private Ivy League school and gain the right to collectively bargain.
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