Board Members Defend Punting on College Athlete Union Question

The National Labor Relations Board rightly declined to decide whether Northwestern University football players have the right to unionize, a bipartisan pair of board members said March 27, discussing a controversial case from two years ago.

The board in 2015 avoided the hot-button question of whether college athletes should be considered employees empowered to collectively bargain. Instead, it ruled in a unanimous decision that allowing the players to unionize wouldn’t serve the purposes of federal labor law because the National Collegiate Athletic Association, rather than the university, exercises substantial control over players and the public schools that make up the ...