Creating Grass-Roots Change
Creating Grass-Roots Change
Dartmouth Basketball Players Show a Way
This is a free online newsletter for Jason Stahl, Executive Director of the College Football Players Association (CFBPA). If you are a past, present or future college football player, I ask that you consider becoming a member of the CFBPA. For a short YouTube introduction on the CFBPA, click here. Members of the general public who would like to support the CFBPA can donate at this link or volunteer at this link.
Nearly three years ago at this newsletter, I wrote about a key problem with the college athletics reform movement in the United States. Namely, I argued that the movement has elite activists (broadly termed “athlete advocates”) but not a grass roots (actual college athletes organized into a sustained movement for change).
Three years later, I don’t think much has changed in this regard. Some college athletics administrators continue to make bad decisions for the future of the entire enterprise of college athletics. The latest wave of conference realignment is the most recent one. Like previous poor decisions, such changes are not made with athlete input (because there is no independent, organized movement of college athletes). As such, realignment, like previous ill-advised administrative decision-making, will likely be bad for the overall health of these athletes’ workplaces.
In response to the poor decision-making of the administrative class in college athletics, athlete advocates continue to work in elite realms to try to affect change. Some use the courts; some use state and federal legislative action; while others use the National Labor Relations Board. While much of this elite activism is well-intentioned, it too is done without the input of an organized movement of college athletes. Given the lack of an organized grass roots, we don’t really know what college athletes think of these actions. The question of what athletes will agitate for when they rise up in an organized fashion still largely remains to be seen.
I say “largely” as about a month ago, we received the first glimmer of an answer to this question when men’s basketball players at Dartmouth College filed for a union election with The Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Here at the CFBPA, we fully endorse the players and their campaign. There remains a long road ahead, as Dartmouth College and NCAA administrators will be fighting the players efforts for months and possibly years to come. But, it appears that from this unexpected source, players are showing the power of getting organized.
I say “unexpected” because Dartmouth basketball is not exactly synonymous with big time college athletics. But, for these particular players, the choice of forming a union to engage in collective bargaining on their behalf makes perfect sense. As the two leading player organizers argued in the student newspaper The Dartmouth, the winds of change are in the air for college athletes nationwide. They cite the Alston Supreme Court victory and the current lawsuit against Ivy League institutions for forbidding athletic scholarships as evidence for this positive change. Additionally, given that they play for a private school/employer, the players assert that a union makes particular sense for organized action given that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) would handle their election. Two years ago, the General Counsel of the NLRB declared that college athletes are employees who are entitled the right to organize a union.
As for their reasoning for forming a union, the players cite two: the need for an hourly wage for their work and the need for long-term medical and disability coverage for injuries sustained in their work as basketball players. They players poignantly argue that many on the team often find it hard to make ends meet. They are forced to take part-time jobs which add to their already crowded schedules. In the end, they argue that “there is no reason that basketball players shouldn’t be considered student employees like students working any other campus job.” In the first NLRB hearing on this case last week, this point was driven home when the union’s attorney pointed out that even undergraduate student managers on the team make an hourly wage. If they can, then why not the players?
The players end their op-ed by calling on other athletes from around “the country to follow this story and join us on the journey to improve the conditions for college athletes everywhere.” I hope we continue to hear from the players involved in this action as it heads forward so we can follow along. Players have large platforms when they choose to act collectively and so I hope they use these platforms rather than having their action confined to the realm of administrative court rooms from here on out. They can only inspire other athletes if we continue to hear from them directly as they help create the future of college athletics that is truly needed.
Regardless, these players have shown that college athletes don’t have to wait around for others to act in their name. They have the power right now to improve their workplaces if they act collectively. For some players, particularly at private schools, that may be through unionizing and collectively bargaining. For others, that might mean another type of collective action. Here at the CFBPA, we hope to provide college football players the platform from which to take whatever action they deem appropriate for them and their teammates. If you are a past, present or future college football player who wants to get involved in these actions, we urge you to become a member today.