A ruling issued by a regional labor relations board has allowed a group of student- athletes to form a labor union, highlighting their concerns with the state of college athletics.

Last week, Peter Ohr, regional director of the National Labor Relations Board’s Chicago office, ruled that a group of Northwestern University football players are employees of the university and therefore could choose to form a union to collectively bargain with the university, according to the March 26 decision.

Northwestern has since appealed the decision, and ultimately the ruling may go past the regional office to the full NLRB, said Robert Rabin, a Syracuse University College of Law professor who has worked as a union and management lawyer and arbitrator.

While the Northwestern players’ unionization rights will likely be contested and subject to further rulings, their movement has drawn attention to the wider concerns of student-athletes under the jurisdiction of the NCAA, he said.

“It’s going to be a real wake up call for the NCAA,” Rabin said.

In his decision, Ohr said scholarship football players with playing eligibility remaining are eligible to unionize. But, he added that walk-on players could not be considered employees because they do not receive compensation for playing.

Scholarship players raised concerns like hours spent playing football and injuries sustained in the sport amid the revenues sports generate, Rabin said.

As the ruling has determined that the university employs the football players, they are entitled to negotiate the conditions of their employment, said Jim Williams, an SU law professor and staff attorney at Legal Services of Central New York, in an email.

Northwestern will probably refuse to bargain with a football player union, Rabin said. In any case, the union’s position is not guaranteed because the regional NLRB “does not have the last word,” Rabin said.

The case will likely go before the full NLRB and would best be resolved on a national level, Rabin said. Though the board can issue national rulings, they will only apply to private universities, like Northwestern and SU, as public universities are subject to the laws of their state, he added.

But the NCAA holds jurisdiction over both private and public schools, Rabin said.

“The NCAA is in the best position to make a decision and address the issues,” he said.

Student-athletes gained traction from past cases involving graduate students and adjunct professors at universities, Williams said. Some of those groups have successfully organized for their interests, he added.

The full NLRB has dealt with research and teaching assistants, but no precedent yet exists for student-athletes, Rabin said. If appeals continue and multiple rulings are necessary, the process establishing athletes’ right to unionize could take many years, he said.

Regardless, there is no guarantee that other student-athletes would form unions if a wider ruling guaranteed that right. Rabin said athletes may not want to pay taxes on payments treated as compensation rather than scholarships, or to pay union dues.

Even with the ability to unionize, some student-athletes may not be as passionate in using those avenues to petition their concerns, he said.

Said Rabin: “It’s not certain that they’ll succeed in organizing.”

Published on April 2, 2014 at 1:30 am

Contact Jacob: jspramuk@syr.edu