COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — State pushback against a movement
to unionize college athletes has begun in Ohio, the football-loving
heart of a heated anti-labor campaign in 2011 and home to one of
America’s highest-grossing collegiate franchises, the Ohio State
Buckeyes.
A measure approved by the state House on Wednesday, two
weeks after a federal agency said football players at Northwestern
University could unionize, clarifies that college athletes aren’t public
employees. The proposal appears to be the first of its kind to clear a
state legislative chamber; it heads next to the state Senate.
The
opposite is happening in Connecticut, where lawmakers are looking at
clearing the path for college athletes to unionize. Some observers,
though, think other states are more likely to follow Ohio’s lead.
"This
is a pre-emptive move," said John Russo, a union organization expert
who formerly directed Youngstown State University’s Center for
Working-Class Studies.
The National Labor Relations Board official
ruled March 26 that full-scholarship players at Northwestern University
in Illinois are employees and therefore eligible to unionize. The
university has appealed ahead of a vote by the athletes April 25.
Northwestern
athletes leading the effort say they simply want a seat at the table
since they have so little say on injuries, insurance, finances,
scheduling and other aspects of their sports.
Federal labor law is
in play at Northwestern because it’s private, but states control policy
at public universities — including giants such as Ohio State, Florida
State, Michigan and Alabama, whose athletic programs generate millions
in annual revenue. Federal data show Ohio State’s athletic department
generated $123 million in revenue last year, sixth-highest in the
country.
Michael McCann, director of the Sports and Entertainment
Law Institute at the University of New Hampshire, said he would not be
surprised to see other states, especially those with powerful athletic
programs at public colleges, follow the lead of lawmakers in Ohio.
But,
he added, a declaration that college athletes aren’t public employees
might create an uneven playing field if athletes at private universities
can unionize and receive benefits while those at public colleges in the
same state can’t.
"In theory, it could give the private universities a recruiting advantage," McCann said.
Such
a law also would go even a step beyond "right-to-work" states that have
laws that would prevent athletes from unionizing but still allow them
to be considered public employees, Russo said.
In Connecticut —
home to the teams at the public University of Connecticut that won both
the men’s and women’s NCAA basketball titles this week — lawmakers are
evaluating whether state law allows athletes to join a union.
"If
there are any artificial barriers, then we should remove them," said
Democratic state Rep. Patricia Dillon, noting athletes shouldn’t be
forced to join unions. "But there’s no question that the whole concept
of student-athletes was unjust from the beginning."
The National
Conference of State Legislatures, which tracks statehouse legislation
nationwide, said it doesn’t know of proposals on college unionization in
any other states, perhaps because many legislatures are out of session.
But Russo believes it’s coming.
"All
these individual states that have public-sector universities, they’re
going to move fast to say those athletes aren’t public employees," said
Russo, now a visiting research fellow at Virginia Tech.
The Ohio
proposal’s chances in the Senate are unclear. That chamber spearheaded a
2011 law limiting the bargaining powers of police, firefighters,
teachers and other public workers. Voters later overwhelming repealed
it.
The leader of a powerful labor union in Ohio criticized
lawmakers for pushing for a change in defining athletes before hearing
their concerns.
"They should try to engage in a productive way by
dealing with the real concerns of fairness and safety where the players
and university leaders have expressed common themes for change," said
Ohio AFL-CIO President Tim Burga.
Ohio has a deep love affair with
football, from high school to the NFL, which took root in Canton, now
home to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The state has eight football bowl
subdivision teams, all of which would be affected by the
employee-athlete provision.
Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said after the Northwestern ruling that he’s always been
"pro-student."
"They
(athletes) should get a stipend. … but to say that they can go out
and get their own shoe contracts or those kinds of things, I start
hearing that and I’m, like, ‘Well, what would that do for this great
sport?’" he said. "And, really, what would that do for college athletics
as a whole?"
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Associated Press writers Kantele Franko and Rusty Miller in Columbus and John Seewer in Toledo
contributed to this report.
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