College football players have right to form a union, NLRB rules
Peter Sung Ohr, in Chicago, ruled that “players receiving scholarships from the employer are ’employees'” and ordered that an election be conducted to determine whether Northwestern players wanted representation by the College Athletes Players Assn. for the purposes of collective bargaining. Northwestern will appeal the decision to the NLRB in Washington. That probably will not be the final step in a process, that could eventually be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. If the ruling stands it could affect other private universities such as USC. The NLRB does not have jurisdiction over public universities… “Sixty years ago, the NCAA invented the term ‘student-athlete’ to avoid this day,” Huma, a former UCLA linebacker, said in a phone interview. “Because the Northwestern players showed courage, today did come. And players are one giant step closer to justice.”
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by Gary Klein, The Los Angeles Times.