Northwestern football players seek to join union

If a non-union school offers more money benefits than a union one, good for it. That's how any number of large corporations have stayed unionized over the years.

 

What'll happen first is that the state labor board will rule that athletes aren't employees. So there won't be a need -- yet -- to ban unionization. Of course, this will all end up in court, so we have a years-long battle over whether to pay and if so, how much.

The NLRB person did give schools one out -- don't give athletic scholarships. The walk-ons aren't considered employees because, simply, they aren't getting paid, so they're essentially volunteers with nothing to lose if they walk away from the team. But are schools ready to do that?

Also, if scholarships no longer existed -- and there wasn't some alternative means of funding athletes otherwise -- there is a whole youth sports economy based on scholarship chasing that could be ripe for a correction.

 

No. Even if they share the loot there's still billions for the schools. They aren't walking away from industries as lucrative as major college football and basketball.

 

I think there were also other outs. Have the scholarship, but it can't be based upon on-field performance (ie. based upon showing up and not based upon the number of interceptions thrown) also, coaches can't regulate kids' activities outside of actual football-related circumstances, like games and practices.

 

There are definitely unintended tax consequences for the players, as well as the University. The Internal Revenue Code defines income broadly enough to include scholarships, but "qualified" scholarships are specifically excluded from taxable income (IRC section 117). There is then an exception to the exclusion for "that portion of any amount received which represents payment for teaching, research, or other services by the student required as a condition for receiving the qualified scholarship or qualified tuition reduction.

The NLRB ruling finds that the football scholarships are compensation for playing football so the value of the scholarships should now be considered taxable income to the players - who, of course, aren't receiving cash that can be used to pay those taxes.

 

One of the ultimate goals of the conspiracy is to eliminate unions completely in the U.S., so any chance to crush them anywhere will be seized.

Watch all the yeehaw hillbilly states rush out with their anti-union bills.

It's a perfect storm for them: a high-profile case, unions in public education!!!!!, one of their biggest bugaboos, mouthy young black guys with dreads and tats demanding "money for playing a game."

The corporatist media will get behind it and within a year, virtually all RTW states (and probably a few others too) will have anti-college-athlete unionization bills.

 

Well then, schools in those states may lose out on recruits. A few 5-6 seasons and the Alabama state legislature might reconsider its stance. All it takes is one school to recognize and bargain with such a union and all the rest will have to follow suit in offering if not wages, comparable work rules and other benefits.

 

Given the reception that the United Auto Workers have gotten in SEC country
combined with most of those states being right to work states, its doubtful that unions would start there.

 

Again, Boom it's not about the union per se. It's about the pressure a union anywhere would create on how all schools treat their athletes.

 

I wonder if this ruling impacts Kent Waldrep's case at all.

 

I'd say the solution to the Alabamas of the world is to make booster pay legal, except the IRS gets involved there, too. And if coaches thought boosters had a lot of power before...