A National Labor Relations Board regional official ruled on Monday that Dartmouth basketball players are employees of the school, clearing the way for an election that would create the first-ever labor union for NCAA athletes. All 15 members of the Dartmouth men's basketball team signed a petition in September to join Local 560 of the Service Employees International Union, which represents some other employees at the Ivy League school in Hanover, New Hampshire. Unionizing would allow the players to negotiate salary and working conditions, including practice hours and travel, the AP reports.
"Because Dartmouth has the right to control the work performed by the Dartmouth men's basketball team, and the players perform that work in exchange for compensation, I find that the petitioned-for basketball players are employees" under the National Labor Relations Act, Laura Sacks wrote. The NCAA and universities insist their athletes are students, not employees. College sports leaders have lobbied Congress for a law that would codify that classification as the NCAA faces a federal lawsuit in Pennsylvania on the subject. The case is being closely watched at a time when the NCAA's bedrock amateur athlete model is facing multiple challenges in court.
"It's the first step to potential employee status for college athletes," said a sports law professor. The school can appeal the decision to the national board, which is what happened when Northwestern's football team held a union election in 2014. Those ballots were impounded pending a ruling, per the AP. Now, an election can be held and ballots counted while an appeal is pending. The Northwestern ballots were destroyed after the NLRB, which governs only private employers, decided allowing players at the only private school in the Big Ten to unionize would skew the conference's labor market. In that case, the NLRB did not address whether the players were employees.
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