HR Management & Compliance

NLRB regional director orders union election for Northwestern football players

A regional director of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has ruled that football players at Northwestern University are entitled to a union election because they’re essentially employees of the private university located in Evanston, Illinois.

Peter Sung Ohr, Region 13 director of the NLRB, issued an order on March 26 that a union representation election be conducted. He said Northwestern’s scholarship football players are entitled to vote on union representation because they’re “employees” under Section 2(3) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).

Ohr’s order likely isn’t the last word on the issue since the university has said it will appeal to the full NLRB in Washington, D.C. If the decision stands, it will apply only to private schools since public universities aren’t covered by the NLRA.

Ohr said the bargaining unit would be made up of “all football players receiving football grant-in-aid scholarships and not having exhausted their playing eligibility.” His decision says Northwestern’s football team, part of the Big Ten conference, is made up of “about 112 players of which there are 85 players who receive football grant-in-aid scholarships that pay for their tuition, fees, room, board, and books.” The decision also notes that scholarship players typically receive grant-in-aid totaling $61,000 each academic year.

Northwestern issued a statement March 26 saying it was “disappointed” by Ohr’s ruling. “Northwestern considers its students who participate in NCAA Division I sports, including those who receive athletic scholarships, to be students, first and foremost,” the statement said. “We believe that participation in athletic events is part of the overall educational experience for those students, not a separate activity.”

The unionization effort is being pushed by the College Athletes Players Association (CAPA) and financed by the United Steelworkers union, according to a Chicago Tribune report. The newspaper said CAPA is funded by former UCLA linebacker Ramogi Huma, who is an advocate for players’ rights.

The news report said CAPA wants financial help for former players with sports-related medical expenses, concussion experts present during games, and an educational trust fund for former players trying to graduate.

Northwestern’s statement said unionization isn’t the appropriate way to address CAPA’s concerns. “The issues regarding the long-term health impacts of playing intercollegiate sports, providing additional grant-in-aid support and providing academic support and opportunities for student-athletes are being discussed currently at the national level, and we agree that students should have a voice in those discussions,” the statement said. “However, we believe that a collective bargaining process at Northwestern would not advance the discussion of these topics, in large part because most of the issues being raised by the union are outside the purview of Northwestern.”

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