A regional director of the National Labor Relations Board said the Dartmouth College men’s basketball team can hold a union election, a decision that could have major repercussions for college sports.
The decision, released on Monday, concluded that the players on the team do represent employees of the school and are subject to the National Labor Relations Act. The 15 members of the team had petitioned to join Local 560 of the Service Employees International Union, which already represents some other Dartmouth employees.
“Because Dartmouth has the right to control the work performed by the Dartmouth men’s basketball team, and the players perform that work in exchange for compensation, I find that the petitioned-for basketball players are employees within the meaning of the Act,” wrote Laura Sacks, the NLRB director for most of New England.
This is the second time in the past decade that a regional director has ruled in favor of such a vote. In 2014, members of the Northwestern football team were allowed to convene a union election, but the school appealed, and the union never came to fruition.
Dartmouth still has the option to appeal this ruling, although an election can still be held in the meantime.
The economic status of college athletes has changed tremendously in recent years, especially in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling that paved the way for student-athletes to profit off of their name, image, and likeness, or NIL.
The NCAA ended its prohibition on college athletes receiving NIL compensation in 2021, and the few years since have seen an explosion in endorsement deals and a rise in athletes going to schools where they can earn the most.
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More broadly, unionization has received outsize attention given that the Biden administration has made unions a priority, with Joe Biden branding himself the most pro-union president in history.
Still, despite the media attention to unions, the share of workers in the United States who are union members has been declining over the years and dropped to 10% in 2023, a record low, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
