In an historic move, women’s basketball players at Oregon State University (OSU) have petitioned the state Employment Relations Board to recognize them as a bargaining unit. If the board gives its approval, they will be the first college athletes to win union representation.
Their effort is a shot of adrenaline in a unionizing campaign by the United College Athletes Association (UCAA) to give players a say in safety, compensation, and academic freedoms.
OSU insists that players are not college employees, even though schools exercise serious control over athletes’ schedules and working conditions and can now pay them directly.
Higher-ed teams are the profit-generating engine of a multibillion-dollar sports empire run by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), which regulates student sports and restricts the benefits and compensation players can receive. Like OSU and other college administrations, they assert the athletes are not workers.
The NCAA is lobbying Congress for legislation misleadingly labeled the Protect College Sports Act. According to the AFL-CIO, the bill “would disempower athletes, snuff their compensation and bust their union-organizing efforts.” It would also grant the NCAA an exemption from antitrust law. The bill has bipartisan support.
Agreements about the exploitation of athletes’ names, images, and likenesses, known as NIL, are central to the big business of college sports. In 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that players can profit from the use of their NIL, and this change is fueling the unionization effort. Either schools directly share revenue with players or the athletes themselves work with brands who pay for content. But, as yet, not all players are benefiting from the ruling; some are not being paid anything even though their schools are raking in NIL profits.
The Oregon Employment Relations Board will make a ruling after a recommendation by an administrative law judge. Here’s hoping it’s a “swish” for the athletes.
Send comments to: FSnews@socialism.com.
