The highly publicized effort by Northwestern University’s football players to form a union was thrown for a big loss this week when the NLRB unanimously dismissed the union’s representation petition. Northwestern Univ., 362 N.L.R.B. No. 167 (8/17/15). Reversing the March 2014 decision of the NLRB Regional Director in Chicago, the full Board found that the control the NCAA and athletic conferences such as the Big 10 exerts over individual college teams would make collective bargaining difficult. Because of this control, the Board said that “labor issues directly involving an individual team and its players would also affect the NCAA, the Big Ten, and the other member institutions.”
The Board also noted that of the 125 colleges and universities participating in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, only 17 were subject to NLRB jurisdiction. The remainder are public schools not covered by the NLRA, creating “an inherent asymmetry of the labor relations regulatory regimes applicable to individual teams.”
While it may be fourth and long for the players’s union, there is still plenty of time left on the clock. The NLRB made clear its ruling is limited to the football players at Northwestern, and left open the possibility that it would each a different result if, for example, the Union had petitioned for all Division I scholarship football players at private colleges and universities.