News & Commentary September 17, 2023 Dartmouth College athletes file petition to unionize

https://onlabor.org/september-17-2023/

By Will Ebeler

Will Ebeler is a student at Harvard Law School.

In this weekend’s news and commentary: updates from UAW’s strike, Dartmouth College athletes file petition to unionize, visual effects artists at Marvel Studios unanimously vote to unionize, and California’s legislature passes a variety of pro-worker bills.

There are two updates this weekend on UAW’s targeted strike against Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis. On Saturday the union resumed negotiations with the companies and announced that it had “reasonably productive conversations with Ford.” It made no mention of GM or Stellantis. Also, Ford and GM have begun temporary layoffs at non-striking plants. On Friday, Ford sent home 600 workers at one Michigan plant, and GM announced that 2,000 workers will be laid off from a Kansas plant sometime early this week. According to the companies, the striking workers produce goods that the laid off workers would need to continue working. UAW’s President Shawn Fain said that laid off workers would continue to have an income and that the companies’ announcement was an attempt “to put the squeeze on our members to settle for less.” And according to NPR, although companies typically give at least partial pay to non-striking workers that are laid off because of supply chain issues such as these, Ford and GM have announced there will be no partial pay.

Last week, the Dartmouth College men’s basketball team filed a petition to unionize. All 15 players on the team signed the petition to be represented by the Service Employees International Union. Their petition is the most recent in a wave of recent efforts by college athletes to assert their rights. A former Villanova football player has filed a lawsuit claiming that college athletes are employees; the NCAA is facing a class-action lawsuit over use of college athletes’ name, image, and likeness in television broadcasts; and Brown University basketball players sued the Ivy League earlier this year to challenge its practice of not awarding athletic scholarships. Observers have drawn comparisons between Dartmouth players’ organizing efforts and an early attempt by college athletes to unionize. In 2014, Northwestern University football players attempted to organize but the Board ultimately dismissed their petition. In that case, Northwestern was a private university playing in a league (the Big Ten Conference) that included public schools. The Board argued that recognizing Northwestern’s players when it did not have jurisdiction over the other schools in the league would create an uneven labor arrangement. By contrast, because all Ivy League schools are private, there isn’t a similar rationale for rejecting Dartmouth’s players union. However, observers were cautious to note that there will be several challenges before the players can unionize, including the undecided issue of whether the athletes are employees.

FULL story at link above.