Dartmouth men's basketball team votes to form labor union, which is first for college athletics

Dartmouth men's basketball players voted on Tuesday to form the first labor union in college sports, a historic decision that could trigger a huge shift in the longstanding NCAA amateur model.

The 15-player roster voted 13-2 in favor of unionization. In terms of any collective bargaining determinations, the men's basketball players will be represented by the local chapter of Service Employees International Union, one of the largest labor unions in the country.

The vote requires Dartmouth "to bargain in good faith with their employees' representative and to sign any collective bargaining agreement that has been reached," according to the National Labor Relations Board. The parties involved have five business days to file objections to Tuesday's election, and if no objections are filed the NLRB will certify the union as the workers' bargaining representative.

"For decades, Dartmouth has been proud to build productive relationships with the five unions that are currently part of our campus community," the university said in a statement posted on X. "We always negotiate in good faith and have a deep respect for our 1,500 union colleagues, including the members of SEIU Local 560.

"In this isolated circumstance, however, the students on the men's basketball team are not in any way employed by Dartmouth. For Ivy League students who are varsity athletes, academics are of primary importance, and athletic pursuit is part of the educational experience. Classifying these students as employees simply because they play basketball is as unprecedented as it as inaccurate. We, therefore, do not believe unionization is appropriate."

Dartmouth can appeal the ruling in a federal appeals court. As an intermediate step, the school has filed a Request of Review of the regional director's ruling with the national NLRB office.

"In issuing her Decision, the Regional Director made an unprecedented, unwarranted, and unsupported departure from every applicable Supreme Court, federal court and Board precedent and created a new definition of 'employee' in a manner that not only exceeded her authority but promises to have significant negative labor and public policy implications," attorneys representing the university's board of trustees wrote in their request.

"Nothing in the record supports her finding that the basketball players perform work under the direction and control of Dartmouth in exchange for compensation. Only an extraordinary and palpably incorrect reading of the record could have led the Regional Director to her conclusion that such basketball players qualify as employees. This case, then, warrants a review by the full Board, which should reverse the Regional Director’s Decision and dismiss the Petition."

But the decision to unionize marks a seismic and likely influential move away from amateurism and toward an "employee" model for some athletes.

The vote to unionize by Dartmouth athletes was praised by the Major League Baseball Players Association.

"The MLBPA applauds the Dartmouth men’s basketball players for their courage and leadership in the movement to establish and advance the rights of college athletes," executive director Tony Clark said in a statement. "By voting to unionize, these athletes have an unprecedented seat at the table and a powerful voice with which to negotiate for rights and benefits that have been ignored for far too long."

The Dartmouth case marked the second time in the past decade that an NLRB regional director has ordered a union election involving athletes in an NCAA program, following an election for the Northwestern football team in March 2014. The results of that election were never made public.

The NLRB's Los Angeles office has another case pending against the University of Southern California, the Pac-12 Conference and the NCAA regarding employment status of football, men's basketball, and women's basketball players.

The Los Angeles office is pursuing this case under a labor-law theory known as the "joint employment theory." Under a new rule adopted by the NLRB last March, "a business is a joint employer if it has the right to exercise control over any of seven enumerated terms or conditions of employment," including wages, schedule and the assignment of duties, "even if it never exercises such control, and even if the only way it could exercise such control would be through an intermediary."

The National Labor Relations Act, or NLRA, only guarantees the right of private sector employees to unionize. However, the complaint in this case aims to resolve that issue by alleging that the NCAA, the Pac-12 and USC are joint employers of the athletes. If the NCAA and the Pac-12 are determined to be joint employers with USC, because the NCAA and the Pac-12 include public schools, the case could apply to athletes at both public and private schools.

The vote at Dartmouth came one month after a regional director for the NLRB ordered a union election for the program, writing that “because Dartmouth has the right to control the work performed by” the players and “because the players perform that work in exchange for compensation,” they should be recognized as school employees under the National Labor Relations Act.

The regional director, Laura A. Sacks, wrote in her ruling that Dartmouth “exercises significant control over the basketball players’ work," and that the school's student-athlete handbook “in many ways functions as an employee handbook.”

She cited examples of the way the school, university administrators and coaches determine what the players can do and when, noting that for Dartmouth players, “special permission is required for a player to even get a haircut during a trip.”

The university argued that these types of regulations were necessary for players' safety and “no different from the regulations placed on the student body at large.”

Sacks rejected Dartmouth's argument that describing men's basketball players as school employees could lead to students who participate in a variety of other extracurricular activities also being considered school employees.

"No evidence in the record suggests that other students receive the extent of individual support and special consideration received by those individuals who participate in high-profile Division I collegiate athletics," she wrote.

There are additional NLRB cases occurring in the Chicago office, which is investigating an unfair labor practice charge filed last July by the College Basketball Players Association against Northwestern, and in the Indianapolis office, which is investigating an earlier charge filed by the CBPA against the NCAA.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dartmouth men's basketball form union in vote after NLRB approval