College sports apes Wal-Mart: University boss defends football union-busting to Salon
Last edited Fri Apr 25, 2014, 07:59 PM - Edit history (1)
Source: Salon.com
If collective bargaining were required, would negative consequences ensue? Northwestern's answer may surprise you
JOSH EIDELSON
In an election without precedent in college sports history, Northwestern football players will vote today on whether to become union members. But resistance from the university could keep those ballots from ever being counted – or drag the case all the way to the Supreme Court.
“They’ve obviously decided to embark on a classic, aggressive, anti-union campaign,” former National Labor Relations Board chairwoman Wilma Liebman told Salon Thursday. Asked about that assessment, Northwestern vice president of university relations Alan Cubbage answered, “I certainly wouldn’t contest someone’s opinion … they’re entitled to that opinion.”
As I’ve reported, college athletes have taken sporadic stabs at NCAA overhaul for decades, including an audacious but abortive mid-‘90s attempt to halt March Madness with a strike; a petition circulated on several campuses; and a rare, if subtle, nationally televised act of protest last September, when 28 players took to the field with the initials APU – “All Players United” – affixed to their bodies.
“We’ve appealed to lawmakers, and we got a few laws passed; you know, we’ve talked to Congress, we’ve helped on lawsuits, we’ve put together intense public pressure campaigns,” ex-linebacker Ramogi Huma, a founder of the non-union National College Players Association as well as the fledgling union College Athletes Players Association, told Salon after filing the first-of-its-kind unionization petition with the NLRB in January. “But it’s clear, you know, in a multibillion-dollar sports business, for players to have protections, that the answer is to form a labor organization so that the player can collectively bargain for things on a comprehensive level.”
FULL story at link.
Read more: http://www.salon.com/2014/04/25/college_sports_apes_wal_mart_university_boss_defends_football_union_busting_to_salon/
Also see this related post: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014788369
NCAA president Mark Emmert (Credit: AP/David J. Phillip)
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