Dartmouth to unionize
Basketball team votes to join the first college athletics union
Members of the Dartmouth College men’s basketball team Tuesday became the first college athletes to vote to unionize. A significant milestone in the rapidly changing business for collegiate sports.
The team members voted 13-2 in favor of the union, according to the National Labor Relations Board, which oversees union representation votes for private employers.
The affirmative vote does not automatically mean that there will be a union for team members. Dartmouth has already indicated it will appeal the decision by the NLRB to recognize the players as employees who are eligible to join a union.
From the President
“We have productive relationships with so many unions and believe our athletes are students,” Dartmouth President Sian Beilock told CNN’s Poppy Harlow in an interview last month. “We don’t give athletic scholarships. (Our players) are student-athletes here, and we believe our students should be thought of in that way.”
Ruling – they are employees
According to a ruling by a regional director of the NLRB, the Dartmouth men’s basketball team players are considered employees. This is because Dartmouth has the right to control the work performed by the players. They also receive compensation in exchange for their work. The compensation includes various benefits such as room and board for part of the year, equipment, apparel, tickets for home and road games, footwear, access to nutrition and medical professionals, exclusive use of certain facilities, and academic support. The findings of the NLRB regional director indicate that this vote has significant potential to greatly alter the landscape of college sports in America. Especially in football and basketball, which are the two sports that generate the most revenue.
Large Revenues
During the last school year, the 352 schools playing in Division I conferences reported that their two major sports, basketball and football, alone generated revenue of $7.9 billion, according to data compiled by the Department of Education. The National Collegiate Athletic Association report shows that overall Division I athletics generated nearly $17.5 billion in revenue in 2022.
Dartmouth College’s men’s basketball program, however, makes just a fraction of the revenue of major sports powerhouses. The program’s reported basketball expenses exactly match its revenue of $1.3 million as per the figures filed with the Department of Education. It reported a much lower number of $458,000 for basketball revenue in testimony before the National Labor Relations Board.
Changing attitudes
During a press conference that took place after winning the college football championship, Jim Harbaugh, who was the coach of the University of Michigan at the time, endorsed the idea of union representation for college athletes. He stated that it was time for athletes to receive a share of the revenue being produced by college sports. Unions would be the way for that to happen. The University of Michigan reported a football revenue of $131 million in the most recent year to the Department of Education.
The coach said….
“And it’s long past time to let the student-athletes share in the ever-increasing revenues. I mean, it’s billions,” said Harbaugh, who has since taken a coaching position in the NFL. “And there needs to be a voice for the young people, the student-athletes. Right now there is no voice… I have nothing against unions. That’s the next step, fellas. I think that’s the way you’ve gotta go. That’s what I’d like to see change in college athletics.”
The NCAA has been against any form of compensation for student-athletes, aside from scholarships and minimal stipends. However, the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in 2021 declared NCAA rules that prohibit compensation for student-athletes to be a violation of antitrust laws. This ruling has opened up the possibility for student-athletes to receive greater compensation.
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Unions Celebrate
“Today is a big day for our team. We stuck together all season and won this election,” said a statement issued by Cade Haskins and Romeo Myrthil, two leaders of the unionizing effort and juniors on the team. “It is self-evident that we, as students, can also be both campus workers and union members.”
“Dartmouth seems to be stuck in the past. It’s time for the age of amateurism to end,” they continued. “Let’s work together to create a less exploitative business model for college sports. Over the next few months, we will continue to talk to other athletes at Dartmouth and throughout the Ivy League about forming unions and working together to advocate for athletes’ rights and well-being.”
Last place in standings but first to join the union
The Dartmouth basketball team will play its final game of the 2023-2024 season on Tuesday night at home against Harvard University. Unfortunately, the team will finish the season in last place in the Ivy League with a 5-21 record. They are heading into the game with a nine-game losing streak. However, the team’s decision to join the Service Employees International Union has been praised by union leaders, including Mary Kay Henry, the president of the union.
“These young men will go down as one of the greatest basketball teams in all of history. The Ivy League is where the whole scandalous model of nearly free labor in college sports was born and that is where it is going to die,” she said. “But this victory is about way more than sports. It’s about people who need a union getting one. Whether it’s baristas at Starbucks, airport workers, drivers with Uber and Lyft, or student employees.”
Mimic the pros?
Professional sports is one of the most heavily unionized industries in the US economy. Most professional athletes in the four major team sports – football, basketball, baseball, and hockey – are members of unions. They are some of the highest-paid union members in the country.
The pay level of most professional athletes is negotiated between the teams and the players or their agents, not the union. However, the unions and the leagues agree on contracts that set the terms of the negotiations. These contracts make the multi-million dollar contracts possible.
Professional athletes in one of the four major North American sports leagues receive a minimum salary of between $740,000 a year in baseball and $1.1 million a year in the National Basketball Association. This is assuming they stay on a roster of one of those teams for an entire season.
MLB shout-out
“The Major League Baseball Players Association applauds the Dartmouth men’s basketball players for their courage and leadership in the movement to establish and advance the rights of college athletes,” said Tony Clark, the union’s executive director. “These athletes have an unprecedented seat at the table and a powerful voice with which to negotiate for rights and benefits that have been ignored for far too long.”
The organizing is growing
In recent years, colleges and universities have experienced a surge in union organizing. This is largely due to students who work in a variety of roles such as teaching, research, food services, and residence halls, voting to form unions. According to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), over 40,000 students have joined unions formed in the past two years alone. The AFL-CIO confirms that the education sector has seen more union growth through organizing votes than any other sector in the US economy.