Could player unions soon appear in college sports? An upcoming vote by Northwestern University’s football team will decide whether the players will form the first union in any college sport. The players won this right in a March decision by a regional office of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which found that the players were employees for purposes of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and therefore entitled to unionize.
College athletes have long been deemed to be students rather than employees, a distinction with important implications concerning the applicability of labor laws and workers’ compensation issues. The board’s decision does not affect players at public universities, as they are governed by individual states’ labor laws and not the NLRA.
The election is scheduled for April 25. Northwestern has appealed the regional office’s decision to the full NLRB. An article in the Chicago Tribune has more details.
