The union representing the Dartmouth men's basketball team filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the Ivy League school on Wednesday for refusing to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement with players.
The Service Employees International Union Local 560, which already represents some other workers at the Hanover, New Hampshire, school, said the failure to negotiate was a violation of both labor law and the school's own ethics code.
“For nearly 60 years, Dartmouth has followed a tradition of negotiating fair and equitable union contracts with our local chapter,” union president Chris Peck said in a statement. “It is time for Dartmouth's administration to avoid looming financial and legal liabilities by taking this opportunity to demonstrate leadership, as the players have done, and live up to its own rhetoric about the importance of community and dialogue.”
In March, a regional director of the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Dartmouth men’s basketball players were employees of the school, clearing the way for them to unionize. The players then voted 13 to 2 to join SEIU Local 560.
Dartmouth responded by announcing that it would not negotiate with the players, a tactic designed to force the case into court in the hopes that a federal judge would overturn the NLRB's decision.
“While we continue to negotiate in good faith with multiple unions representing Dartmouth employees, our responsibility to future generations of students means we must explore all of our legal options to challenge the regional director's error, which was contrary to all legal precedent,” the school said in a statement Wednesday.
The refusal to negotiate with the players “is an unprecedented step in Dartmouth’s long history of labor negotiations, but it is the only lever we can use to ensure that this matter is reviewed by a federal court,” the school said. “We had hoped that this action would result in the filing of an unfair labor practice complaint with the NLRB, which they did and which we will also appeal.”
In March, NLRB regional director Laura Sacks ruled that Dartmouth had enough control over its men’s basketball players that they were legally employees of the school and entitled to collectively bargain over working conditions, such as practice hours and travel, as well as pay. While the decision applies only to Dartmouth’s men’s basketball team, which attempted to unionize, players have said they hope other teams on campus or at other schools will follow suit.
Dartmouth has requested a review of the regional director's decision by the full board.
“Dartmouth's decades-long commitment to athletics is an extension of our academic mission, and we maintain that the regional director made an extraordinary error in determining that these students are employees,” the school said Wednesday. “Ivy League varsity athletes are not employees; they are students whose educational program includes athletics. The Ivy League was formed in 1954 with a commitment to the primacy of academics, which was visionary at the time and even more so today.”
