Springfield, VA (July 10, 2014) \u2013 The National Right to Work Foundation, a charitable organization that provides free legal aid to employees nationwide, has filed an amicus curiae (\u201cfriend of the court\u201d) brief with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) opposing the compulsory unionization of college athletes. The brief was filed in response to a ruling issued earlier this year by an NLRB regional director that found that Northwestern University football players are employees and thus eligible for unionization. <\/p>\n
The Foundation\u2019s brief points out that subjecting student athletes to compulsory unionization violates their First Amendment right to freedom of association. Under the NLRB regional director\u2019s ruling, if a majority of student athletes in an NLRB-designated \u201cbargaining unit\u201d vote for unionization, all student athletes in said unit \u2013 even those who oppose the union\u2019s presence \u2013 must accept the union\u2019s bargaining over their terms of participation in college sports. The students may also be forced to pay union dues as a condition of participating in college athletics. <\/p>\n
The Foundation\u2019s brief goes on to argue that the NLRB has no interest in forcing students to accept union \u201crepresentation\u201d or forcing them to pay union dues because student athletes are not employees. <\/p>\n
Unlike employees, student athletes are not compensated for workplace performance. Scholarships are often awarded on the basis of academic merit and other criteria unrelated to athletics, while many students \u201cwalk-on\u201d to teams for no compensation whatsoever. <\/p>\n
Foundation attorneys note that the NLRB regional director\u2019s labeling of student athletes as employees could also apply to college students who receive scholarships for academics, music, or the arts. This overly-broad definition could leave even more students vulnerable to coercive unionization. <\/p>\n
\u201cStudents shouldn\u2019t be put in a position where they can be forced to pay union dues and accept union bargaining over their participation in college sports,\u201d said Patrick Semmens, Vice President of the National Right to Work Foundation. \u201cWe hope the NLRB will reverse the regional director\u2019s ruling and protect students\u2019 First Amendment rights.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Springfield, VA (July 10, 2014) \u2013 The National Right to Work Foundation, a charitable organization that provides free legal aid to employees nationwide, has filed an amicus curiae (\u201cfriend of the court\u201d) brief with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) opposing the compulsory unionization of college athletes. The brief was filed in response to a ruling issued earlier this year by an NLRB regional director that found that Northwestern University football players are employees and thus eligible for unionization. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[888],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n