Members of Dartmouth College's men's basketball team gathered on a drizzly, gloomy Tuesday at the stately Hanover Inn near campus and walked to a small office building, where they smiled and posed for a group photo. They then went to a conference room on the second floor and took the vote they had spent six months, if not years, preparing.
When the yellow papers were tallied and certified about an hour later, the basketball players had accomplished something no other college athlete had ever accomplished.
By a vote of 13 to 2, they formed a union.
“It's definitely becoming a reality,” Cade Haskins, a senior on the basketball team and a leader in the effort, told more than a dozen reporters after the vote. “We know this has the potential to make history. That wasn't why we did it, but doing it can be scary and daunting.”
Haskins expressed hope that his peers from the Ivy League and other parts of the country will soon be recognized as employees under federal labor law. This classification was a red line for college sports coaches, who were forced to share revenue directly with athletes.
But as college sports' amateur models struggle with the pressures of antitrust lawsuits, unfair labor challenges and declining support in Congress, will Tuesday's election be remembered as a monumental moment or a footnote? It is unclear whether it will be done.
I don't see any movement from other Dartmouth teams organizing. And just before the vote came a warning that the case was far from final. Last month, Dartmouth filed an appeal with the National Labor Relations Board, which has jurisdiction only over private employers, against the regional director's decision to classify the players as employees.
(Nearly 10 years ago, regional directors gave the Northwestern football team the right to vote to unionize, but the votes that had been confiscated were removed because the board refused to assert jurisdiction over the case.) discarded before being counted). )
Dartmouth could ultimately take the board's decision to a federal appeals court, meaning the case may not be resolved until the current players graduate.
The university said in a statement that the unionization vote was inappropriate and that “classifying these students as employees simply because they play basketball is as inaccurate as it is unprecedented.” Stated.
Also Tuesday, a House subcommittee announced that it will hold a hearing next week entitled “Protecting Student-Athletes from NLRB Misclassification.”
Asked how far Dartmouth's players were from the goal line, Haskins said, “They're closer than they started.”
The vote is the latest by organized labor, whose national activity and popularity has soared to levels not seen since the 1960s with support from the Biden administration.
Still, Dartmouth is somewhat unlikely to become a center of activity. It doesn't have the rich history of inspiring mobs like the University of California, Berkeley. The war in Gaza has not disrupted the campus as much as it has at other Ivy League schools. The school is in a remote location and has the lowest enrollment in the Ivy League (4,556 undergraduates), making it a place where the state's motto of “Live Free or Die” permeates an independent spirit. , the oxygen that can be provided to organizers is limited.
But the basketball team is only Dartmouth's newest group to form in the past two years, following student workers, graduate student workers and library staff. Dormitory resident advisors are in the process of forming a union.
“Last few years have seen a whirlwind of labor activity in this small rural area,” said Mark Dixon, chair of the sociology department who studies labor issues. “The pace was really wild.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, this wave of local activity has its roots in the coronavirus pandemic.
When Dartmouth students returned to campus in the fall of 2020 on a hybrid schedule, those who worked at the two on-campus dining establishments were left in limbo. They needed jobs that paid $11 an hour, but they also felt particularly vulnerable to the virus.
Their efforts accelerated as food service workers began organizing. Dartmouth announced in fall 2021 that its endowment had generated an impressive 46 percent return over the previous year, reaching $8 billion. (Dartmouth announced at the time that it was increasing its minimum wage from $7.75 to $11.50.)
About six months later, food service industry workers voted to form a union.
When negotiations with the university were delayed, workers voted to strike in February 2023. Dartmouth quickly relented, agreeing to raise wages to $21 an hour for food service workers, as well as provide sick pay and late-night overtime for the coronavirus.
“Freshmen are not in a position to do research,” said Ian Scott, a fourth-year student who works in the campus cafe's kitchen and was also an organizer. “Dining Services is the place you go when you don't have a choice. Many of the people who work there were, and continue to be, low-income people of color who need assistance.”
Haskins, who was working at the cafeteria, was watching this unfold. He also plays basketball. (About half of the team members work at schools.)
Haskins, a Minneapolis native majoring in policy, philosophy and economics, had struck up a friendship with former Dartmouth player Walter Palmer, who worked in the alumni office. Palmer was the most recent Dartmouth player to be drafted into the NBA in 1990, helped found Europe's first players' union, and also worked for the NBA Players Association. He connected players with the local International Service Employees Union and influential figures like Tony Clark, president of the Major League Baseball Players Association.
Immediately after the arrival of the three freshmen on this year's team, plans were made to file a lawsuit with the NLRB in September. (Haskins and his third-year computer science student Romeo and Mirchir, from Solna, Sweden, were seen as ideal leaders because they won't graduate until next year.)
“We take an oath to organize the unorganized, but we don't say much about what that means,” said Chris Peck, a painter and longtime president of Local 560. No,” he said. You think they come from money and have the world by their tails. Then I hear that they are working in addition to practicing and studying. The stories of restaurant workers were similar. ”
However, this case doesn't fit neatly into any box.
Dartmouth, like other Ivy League schools, does not offer athletic scholarships, only need-based financial aid. And the basketball team didn't make tens of millions like Kansas or Kentucky did. In fact, according to testimony at the hearing, Dartmouth has lost more than $3.2 million over the past five years operating the program, which receives subsidies from Dartmouth. (Distributions from the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament and the Ivy League television agreement with ESPN are classified as athletic department revenue.)
In granting the players employee status, Regional Director Laura A. Sachs, who heard the case, said the players would be given six pairs of basketball shoes each season (valued at $200 each); The court ruled that players would be given between two and four tickets. Matches for family and friends will serve as compensation and the players will therefore be under the control of the university.
She also ruled that because of his value as a basketball player, he should be given access to an “early lead” admissions process as another form of compensation.
These are because Dartmouth College recently hired the same attorney who is representing the University of Southern California in an NLRB lawsuit alleging that its football and men's and women's basketball players are employees, only to be pushed back on appeal to the Board of Regents. This is one of the problems that we are facing. The law firm Morgan Lewis also represents companies SpaceX, Amazon, and Trader Joe's that have challenged the NLRB's authority.
While there appears to be general support for basketball players, there doesn't seem to be widespread enthusiasm on campus to take on the daunting task of organizing players in many of the other 33 sports sponsored by Dartmouth.
Members of the men's hockey team said new rules allowing players to earn money through endorsements have made players think about their situation.
“I think the players are happy with where they are,” said the player, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized by Dartmouth to speak to the press. “We're so excited to be able to play hockey and go to school. It's our choice to come here, so accept the pros and cons.”
He also said the team is having its best season in nearly a decade.
However, this is not the case for the men's basketball team, which has had a disappointing season, languishing at the bottom of the Ivy League. But it helped them finish the season 6-21 with a smile on their face as the Big Green put together a spirited rally to defeat Harvard on Tuesday night, earning their second win of the day. Ta.
