Outgoing Northwestern quarterback Kain Colter, shown here speaking at a press conference on January 28 at The Hyatt Regency Hotel in Chicago, took a leading role in establishing the College Athletes Players Association.
Revolutionary ruling: Fed agency says Northwestern players
can unionize
AP
MAR 26, 2014 3:24p ET
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David Banks / Getty
Outgoing Northwestern quarterback Kain Colter, shown here
speaking at a press conference on January 28 at The Hyatt Regency Hotel in
Chicago, took a leading role in establishing the College Athletes Players
Association.
CHICAGO -- In a stunning ruling that has the potential to
revolutionize college athletics, a federal agency said Wednesday that football
players at Northwestern University can create the nation's first college
athlete's union.
The decision by a regional director of the National Labor
Relations Board means it agrees football players at the Big Ten school qualify
as employees under federal law and therefore can legally unionize.
"Based on the entire record in this case, I find that
the Employer's football players who receive scholarships fall squarely within
(federal labor law's) broad definition of 'employee," Peter Sung Ohr, the
NLRB regional director, said in his 24-page decision.
An employee is generally regarded by law as someone who
receives compensation for a service and is under the direct control of
managers. Players argued that their scholarships are compensation and coaches
are their managers.
The Evanston, Ill-based university argued college athletes,
as students, don't fit in the same category as factory workers, truck drivers
and other unionized workers. Immediately after the ruling, the school announced
it plans to appeal to labor authorities in Washington, D.C.
Alan Cubbage, Northwestern's vice president for university
relations, said in a statement that while the school respects "the NLRB
process and the regional director's opinion, we disagree with it."
The specific goals of the College Athletes Players Association,
or CAPA, which would take the lead in organizing the players, include
guaranteeing coverage of sports-related medical expenses for current and former
players, ensuring better procedures to reduce head injuries and potentially
letting players pursue commercial sponsorships.
But critics have argued that giving college athletes
employee status and allowing them to unionize could hurt college sports in
numerous ways, including by raising the prospects of strikes by disgruntled
players or lockouts by athletic departments.
For now, the push is to unionize athletes at private
schools, such as Northwestern, because the federal labor agency does not have
jurisdiction over public universities.
Outgoing Wildcats quarterback Kain Colter took a leading
role in establishing CAPA. The United Steelworkers union has been footing the
legal bills.
Colter, whose eligibility has been exhausted and who has
entered the NFL draft, said nearly all of the 85 scholarship players on the
Wildcats roster backed the union bid, though only he expressed his support
publicly.
CAPA attorneys argued that college football is, for all
practical purposes, a commercial enterprise that relies on players' labor to
generate billions of dollars in profits. That, they contend, makes the relationship
of schools to players one of employers to employees.
In its endeavor to have college football players be
recognized as essential workers, CAPA likened scholarships to employment pay --
too little pay from its point of view. Northwestern balked at that claim,
describing scholarship as grants.
The NCAA has been under increasing scrutiny over its
amateurism rules and is fighting a class-action federal lawsuit by former
players seeking a cut of the billions of dollars earned from live broadcasts,
memorabilia sales and video games. Other lawsuits allege the NCAA failed to
protect players from debilitating head injuries.
NCAA President Mark Emmert has pushed for a
$2,000-per-player stipend to help athletes defray some of expenses. Critics say
that isn't nearly enough, considering players help bring in millions of dollars
to their schools and conferences.
During the NLRB's five days of hearings in February,
Wildcats coach Pat Fitzgerald took the stand for union opponents, and his
testimony sometimes was at odds with Colter's.
Colter told the hearing that players' performance on the
field was more important to Northwestern than their in-class performance,
saying, "You fulfill the football requirement and, if you can, you fit in
academics." Asked why Northwestern gave him a scholarship of $75,000 a
year, he responded: "To play football. To perform an athletic
service."
But Fitzgerald said he tells players academics come first,
saying, "We want them to be the best they can be ... to be a champion in
life."
An attorney representing the university, Alex Barbour, noted
Northwestern has one of the highest graduation rates for college football
players in the nation, around 97 percent. Barbour insisted, "Northwestern
is not a football factory."
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