Dartmouth basketball union bid withdrawn ahead of Trump's second term

By Daniel Wiessner

Dec 31 (Reuters) - A union on Tuesday moved to withdraw its novel bid to represent the Dartmouth College men's basketball team, a move likely calculated to avoid unfavorable rulings by President-elect Donald Trump's appointees to the National Labor Relations Board.

Members of the Ivy League school's basketball team had voted in March to join a Service Employees International Union affiliate, making them the first college athletes to unionize. But litigation over whether the players are Dartmouth's employees and have the right to join a union has followed and is in early stages.

The Dartmouth campaign came amid a broader effort to roll back restrictions on compensation for student athletes, such as a bar on athletes profiting from the commercial use of their name, image and likeness.

The labor board has never ruled on whether college athletes are employees of their schools and the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the governing body of U.S. college athletics. It is widely expected that Trump's appointees, if presented with the question, would rule that they are not.

Unions made a similar move after Trump's 2016 presidential election victory, withdrawing a number of petitions to represent graduate students who teach while their legal status as schools' employees was in question.

Dartmouth and lawyers for the SEIU affiliate did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Forming a union would allow Dartmouth basketball players to bargain collectively with the school over compensation and working conditions, such as practice schedules, travel policies and discipline from coaches.

NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, an appointee of President Joe Biden, issued a memo in 2021 arguing that college athletes who receive athletic scholarships should be classified as school employees.

Dartmouth and other Ivy League schools do not award athletic scholarships. That distinction could be important because in order to be considered an employee under federal labor law, a person has to receive some form of compensation.

The University of Southern California and the NCAA were hit with a complaint from Abruzzo's office in 2023, claiming they had blocked student athletes from unionizing by not treating them as the school's employees. The case is pending.

The case is Trustees of Dartmouth College, National Labor Relations Board, No. 01-RC-325633.

For Dartmouth: Adam Abrahms of Morgan Lewis & Bockius

For the union: Susan Davis, Evan Hudson-Plush, Eyad Asad, Megan Stater Shaw and Carley Russell of Cohen Weiss & Simon; John Krupski of Milner & Krupski

Read more:

Dartmouth College basketball team's union files complaint over school's refusal to bargain

Dartmouth basketball team votes to form first union in US college sports

NCAA’s $2.7 bln student athlete settlement wins preliminary court approval

U.S. labor board official says college athletes are 'employees'

US labor board tees up union election for Dartmouth College basketball players

(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York)

((daniel.wiessner@thomsonreuters.com))