Northwestern football players seek to join union

Surely a bunch of big money boosters at some big money football schools would never lean on their local lawmaker to make sure free labor stays free. Nah...

 

Well, leaning on local lawmakers had nothing to do with this particular decision.

 

A setback for the athletes, and it hurts them in terms of the leverage that they would have been able to use over their schools in terms of team rules and working conditions. But they've already finally dragged the NCAA and the schools kicking and screaming into making their overall deal a bit more fair, and there's still the the Kessler lawsuit, which would essentially allow free agency, plus some other scattered legal actions, which the NCAA needs to be worried about.

 

The NLRB general counsel has found that Northwestern and other Division I scholarship football players are employees under the National Labor Relations Act.

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/files/gc-17_01-report-on-the-statutory-rights-of-university.pdf

 

Thought Trump was getting rid of the NLRB. Guess he let one slip by.

 

This part was from a few months ago. NLRB had told Northwestern that they needed to change some team rules because the rules were unfair labor practices.

NLRB counsel: Northwestern had 'unlawful' limits on players, who are 'employees'

All in all, it should be it interesting to see what happens. The Kessler case, which seeks free agency for the players, is supposed to finally go to trial at some point this year. That could be a huge thing the players if they end up winning the case.

 

NCAA and conferences paying a $208 million settlement to settle claims that they were illegally capping scholarships. It doesn't settle the rest of the suit, seeking pay for play.

NCAA agrees to $209M scholarships settlement

The battle keeps going on ...