Northwestern Football Team Files To Be Represented by Labor Union

[superman7515]

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/10363430/outside-lines-northwestern-wildcats-football-players-trying-join-labor-union


For the first time in the history of college sports, athletes are asking to be represented by a labor union, taking formal steps on Tuesday to begin the process of being recognized as employees, ESPN's "Outside The Lines" has learned.
Ramogi Huma, president of the National College Players Association, filed a petition in Chicago on behalf of football players at Northwestern University, submitting the form at the regional office of the National Labor Relations Board.

Backed by the United Steelworkers union, Huma also filed union cards signed by an undisclosed number of Northwestern players with the NLRB -- the federal statutory body that recognizes groups that seek collective bargaining rights.

"This is about finally giving college athletes a seat at the table," said Huma, a former UCLA linebacker, who created the NCPA as an advocacy group in 2001. "Athletes deserve an equal voice when it comes to their physical, academic and financial protections."

Much more at the link...

[ngineer]

Whoa! Not only unusual, but with the turnover of students, one wonders whether recertification would be required every so many years (assuming this would even fly).

[tribe_pride]

If they become a union, does that mean that they are employees and that their scholarship money should be taxable?

[MplsBison]

Can you be an employee if you don't receive a paycheck? A scholarship is not a paycheck. It's just an internal transfer of funds within a school's accounting system to reduce to completely nullify a particular student's bill for that term.

Regardless, the issue seems to be related to the NCAA - not the schools themselves. It makes me wonder that if they did get classified as NCAA employees, couldn't the B1G conference (for example) just say "fine, screw you - we're leaving the NCAA and we're just going to have our schools play each other. If people want to watch that, great - we have large stadiums and a national cable network. If not, we don't care. It's not worth it to us to have to start paying players for each game. Players will be made up of students that the coaches select."

I could see something like that happening at the B1G. The presidents and Jim Delany will not allow paychecks to be issued to players, even if they have to scorch the earth.

[tribe_pride]

Can you be an employee if you don't receive a paycheck? A scholarship is not a paycheck. It's just an internal transfer of funds within a school's accounting system to reduce to completely nullify a particular student's bill for that term.

Regardless, the issue seems to be related to the NCAA - not the schools themselves. It makes me wonder that if they did get classified as NCAA employees, couldn't the B1G conference (for example) just say "fine, screw you - we're leaving the NCAA and we're just going to have our schools play each other. If people want to watch that, great - we have large stadiums and a national cable network. If not, we don't care. It's not worth it to us to have to start paying players for each game. Players will be made up of students that the coaches select."

I could see something like that happening at the B1G. The presidents and Jim Delany will not allow paychecks to be issued to players, even if they have to scorch the earth.

General rule is all employees must be paid an income and at a minimum, must earn at least minimum wage. Any compensation received by an employee from an employer is taxable unless there is an exception written in the tax code. For example, if a property manager of an apartment building who is an employee of the property is required to live on the property and gets free housing, the normal cost of rent is considered income to that employee (even though it is not received in a paycheck) but is not taxable because the internal revenue code provides an exception.

For the student-athletes to join a union recognized by the NLRB, they must be considered employees of their employer which in this case would be the schools. Therefore they would be required to be paid an income for their job which could be in the form of the scholarship.

This leads to many other questions such as what about the walk-on players and people in other sports. If a scholarship football player is considered an employee, a walk-on has to be as well since they do the same things. Stretching to other sports could be a little tougher but still close enough. The can of worms that would be opened up would be huge and it would likely lead to many fewer collegiate sports, especially the non-revenue sports. And then what about people in some of these huge marching bands and other places.

All that said, I think (at least hope) this will go away. It may be because the NCAA or schools will help with some of the injury issues and the athletes drop the union vote or it may be because the NLRB rules against them.

[MplsBison]

Tribe, I appreciate the response but I'm not sure I agree with you at this time (though you could well be correct).

Everything I'm reading says it's the players vs. the NCAA in the up-coming ruling by the NLRB. To me, that means that a total victory by the players would be for the NLRB to rule that they are in fact employees of the NCAA.


And if that's true, then it seems like the B1G could simply leave the NCAA and be independent to bypass the ruling. Now, could the players then simply file a new ruling against the B1G? Perhaps they could, I really don't know.


I think it's patently absurd to consider any student as an employee of a university, simply because he receives a scholarship. That means non-student-athletes are employees too! Nonsense.

[tribe_pride]

Bison you are wrong. Look at the last 3rd and 4th to last paragraphs of the ESPN article


The group held a news conference Tuesday afternoon at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Chicago, where Colter, Huma, Gerard and Waters were in attendance. Colter read a statement and also asked NCAA and Northwestern University representatives "to not pressure these players."

The NLRA governs only private enterprises and does not apply to public universities. As a private university, Northwestern falls under its jurisdiction. Gerard said that based on labor law, any decision in favor of the players against Northwestern would apply to all private universities across the country in the FBS. It would not apply to public universities, which are governed by state laws.

Also, think of it this way. Players in the any of the professional sports are employees of their team, not the league. The reason why the NCAA is involved is that if 1 schools players are considered employees, then it will spread to other schools, at least initially private schools in FBS according to the quote above.

[MplsBison]

Thanks again for the clarification. No need to explain their employment concept, it's self-apparent. The issue was confused by the initial reporting that focused on the NCAA (including quotes from the NCAA legal representative). I guess I should've known better that they, like most people, falsely assume the NCAA is some government entity that sets laws about athletics.

Regardless, my last statement still stands perfectly correct. Even if it's a private university, no student should be considered an employee of that university simply by receiving a scholarship. Scholarships aren't paychecks, they're just hand-waving in the accounting system. The NLRB will get it right.

[tribe_pride]

Yeah. We are in agreement that they should not be considered employees which means they do not have the right to form a union.