Employment Law Alliance Founder and CEO and Hirschfeld Kraemer LLP Partner Stephen J. Hirschfeld is quoted in the San Francisco Daily Journal article “Athlete unionization ruling sweeping,” detailing the implications of the March 26 ruling by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that a group of Northwestern University student athletes were “employees” and thus eligible to pusue the formation of a union. In the piece, Hirschfeld lays out several considerations to bear in mind should this decision survive an appeal by the private university. First, students need to be on scholarship to be eligible to join a union as the employee determination question hinges on compensation. Also, the financial viability of an athletic program is critical in order for student athletes to claim a profit is being made from their labor. Hirschfeld expands on the revenue issue by noting, “The reason why there's a big issue is because they're [colleges and universities] doing something that generates money, so it sure smells like an employee.” The article also points out that the NLRB’s decision only affects private universities as the National Labor Relations Act does not cover employees of public institutions.
The piece ends by clarifying that the Northwestern University football players were not seeking to form a union for monetary compensation, but rather for health care reasons. To this point, Hirschfeld offered, “Rarely do employees unionize over pay and benefits. Usually they're organizing over the fairness of how they're being treated. They feel like they're being exploited.”
For more information, please click here to read a related post on ELA’s Higher Education Council Report.