Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) — Northwestern University football players went before the National Labor Relations Board to seek recognition for the group they formed to combat what one quarterback likened to a "dictatorship" over college athletes.
Members of the Northwestern team, including senior quarterback Kain Colter, last month created the College Athletes Players Association. At issue at the NLRB hearing today in the federal courthouse in Chicago was whether the 85 scholarship players qualify as employees of the Evanston, Illinois-based school.
College athletes aren't paid despite generating more than $16 billion in television contracts, as well as creating revenue from sponsorships, ticket and merchandise sales, and payouts for championships.
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"Being a football player at Northwestern is hard work, and make no mistake about it: It is work," John Adam, an attorney for the association, said in his opening statement to the NLRB officer. Failure to maintain conditioning year round puts their scholarships at risk, he said.
Among the player group's goals are guaranteed coverage of sports-related medical expenses for current and former athletes, and compensation for sponsorships. The group also is seeking to establish a trust fund to help former players complete their degrees and push for an increase in athletic scholarships.
No 'Factory'
The university opposes the union drive, saying the school isn't a "football factory."
Alex Barbour, an attorney for Northwestern, said today that the players are "first, foremost and always students as opposed to employees." Each of the scholarship football players gets the same benefits whether he plays or not, Barbour said.
Barbour said the school would acknowledge the association as a labor organization only if the players were found to be employees under the law and if the scholarship athletes were found to be an appropriate bargaining unit. The players can't vote to have the association represent them until it clears those hurdles.
Colter has called the National Collegiate Athletic Association system one that "resembles a dictatorship" and has said players needed union representation similar to that of professional athletes in the National Football League and National Basketball Association. The NCAA, the governing body of major college sports, isn't a party to the proceeding.
The players' petition was backed by the United Steelworkers Union, which is paying the association's legal fees.
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