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- Dartmouth's men's basketball team became the first college athletes to vote to join a labor union.
- The vote could inspire unionization efforts in college sports in the years to come.
- But college athletes' path to becoming unionized employees could come with many challenges and complications.
On March 5, the Dartmouth men's basketball team beat Harvard 76 to 69. But earlier that day, Dartmouth's team landed what was perhaps a more consequential victory.
By a vote of 13 to 2, the team voted to join the service employees union SEIU Local 560 — making them the first college athletes in US history to vote to join a labor union.
The National Labor Relations Board, an independent federal agency, oversaw the election. In September, the Dartmouth team filed a petition to unionize with the NLRB. Then, last month, the NLRB ruled that the Dartmouth players were employees of the school, clearing the way for the unionization vote. The NLRB denied a request from the Dartmouth administration to delay the vote.
However, additional hurdles remain on the athletes' path to unionization. The Dartmouth administration has appealed the NLRB's decision to classify the players as employees, the first step of a legal fight that could last years and eventually wind up at the feet of the Supreme Court.
The landmark vote is yet another example of a rapidly changing college sports landscape. In 2021, athletes were granted the right to make money from their name, image, and likeness, laying the groundwork for what is now an estimated $1 billion NIL market.
The Dartmouth vote also comes as the share of union members in the US reached a record low of just 10% in 2023. In the same year, however, the number of workers on strike more than doubled versus the prior year, led by the UAW, Hollywood, and Kaiser Permanente work stoppages. There's also been an uptick in union activity on college campuses in recent years among undergraduate and graduate students.
In college sports specifically, there have been growing calls for athletes to receive more financial compensation and be recognized as employees. But while other teams may want to follow in Dartmouth's footsteps, they could face challenges due to the limited jurisdiction of the NLRB, a shifting political climate, and the realities of adding employees to schools' payrolls.
Business Insider asked four union experts what the recent developments mean for college athletics' short- and long-term future.
Athletes looking to unionize in college sports could face many obstacles
The Dartmouth vote could be the start of an eventual wave of organizing efforts across college sports, Victor Chen, associate professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University, told Business Insider in an email.
"I think the genie is out of the bottle," he said. "While it may take some time, I think it is inevitable that unions spread in college sports. The industry is just too huge, with too much money at stake, for folks to keep going along with the fiction that the players who make it all possible are mere students."
If unionization efforts spread further, Chen expects unionized players to receive financial compensation and have a greater say over their working conditions.
Jake Rosenfeld, professor of sociology at Washington University in St. Louis, told BI via email that if athletes across the country feel similarly to the Dartmouth players, unionization efforts could be "contagious" and lead to "substantive changes in the treatment of college athletes."
In the short term, however, the impact of the Dartmouth vote could be limited.
The Dartmouth administration's appeal could drag out the process for years, and there's no guarantee athletes across the country will swiftly mobilize and embrace unionization. The NCAA is likely to continue pushing Congress to enact legislation preventing athletes from achieving employee status.
Political factors could also stall momentum.
"A Trump administration — or any GOP administration — would usher in a very different NLRB that would overturn this decision quickly," Rosenfeld said.
If the NLRB's decision to recognize the Dartmouth players stands, it could establish a precedent that enables other teams to follow suit. However, the NLRB only has jurisdiction over private institutions, which means athletes at public universities would have to face a different set of hurdles on their way to unionization.
"The transition will be a rocky road, because you will have new inequalities and disruptions as some athletes are organized and others not," VCU's Chen said.
The NLRB's jurisdiction came into play in 2015 when it blocked a unionization attempt by the Northwestern football team. While Northwestern is a private university, its membership in the Big 10 Conference — which consists of mostly public institutions — was a key reason for the decision. The NLRB said having a mix of union and non-union teams in the conference could lead to competitive imbalances, the Associated Press reported.
However, it's possible that a union push like Northwestern's would have a better chance of success today. Athletes at the University of Southern California, a private university on its way to the Big 10, are waiting for courts to decide whether they should be classified as employees.
The NLRB's Los Angeles office has argued that all college athletes — including those at public universities — are employees of the NCAA and its member conferences, which are private institutions. Under this interpretation, the NLRB would have jurisdiction over all college athletes, which could create a pathway to widespread unionization, USA Today reported.
How will schools be able to pay all their new employees?
Many people have raised concerns about how schools can afford to compensate athletes if they are deemed employees — particularly those who play sports that don't generate much revenue.
While higher compensation for unionized teams could put a financial strain on some schools, unions would likely be strategic about their demands, Matthew Johnson, assistant professor of public policy and economics at Duke University, told Business Insider in an email.
"I would be really surprised if unionized athletes in non-revenue earnings sports would try to demand impossibly high earnings that would force universities to shut down the team," he said.
Even if unionization doesn't lead to huge earnings for most athletes, it could still provide them other benefits — like the ability to bargain for changes in practice hours and travel.
"Having a union is not only about money," Johnson said. "It is also about ensuring players have a voice in shaping the conditions under which they operate."
Unionization could lead to other complicated questions, however. Could schools fire their new employees? Would athletes go on strike? If male athletes garner higher salaries than their female counterparts, would this come into conflict with Title IX?
Barry Eidlin, associate professor of Sociology at McGill University in Montreal, told BI via email that any growing pains would likely be worthwhile.
"US college sports have been in an untenable situation for several decades," he said, adding, "The Dartmouth players are taking a first step in creating a path toward remedying that problem."
Are you a college athlete making money from NIL deals and willing to discuss details about your pay? If so, reach out to this reporter at jzinkula@insider.com.
from All Content from Business Insider https://www.businessinsider.com/dartmouth-basketball-teams-union-vote-college-sports-athletes-paid-ncaa-2024-3
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