A National Labor Relations Board regional official ruled on Monday that Dartmouth basketball players are employees of the school, clearing the way for an election that would create the first-ever labor union for NCAA athletes.
All 15 members of the Dartmouth men’s basketball team signed a petition in September asking to join Local 560 of the Service Employees International Union, which already represents some other employees at the Ivy League school in Hanover, New Hampshire.
Unionizing would allow the players to negotiate not only over salary but working conditions, including practice hours and travel.
Just because there’s no future in sports doesn’t mean their scholarship doesn’t get them an employable degree.
And a poor education with a degree is still a very good deal.
I was curious, so I looked it up. Seems NCAA student-athletes have slightly better outcomes than non-athletes: https://www.gallup.com/education/312941/ncaa-student-athlete-outcomes-2020.aspx
But I suspect that this may be due to the additional funding and support given to the athletes that the non-athletes don’t have access to: https://hechingerreport.org/opinion-college-athletics-departments-do-better-job-counseling-students/