Dartmouth Basketball Players Vote to Become the First Unionized College Sports Team

Richard Ulreich/CSM/Zuma

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.The Dartmouth men’s basketball team voted 13-2 in favor of forming a union on Tuesday, in a move that could make them the first unionized group of college athletes. 
The players voted to join SEIU Local 560, which already represents some employees at the college. Their efforts to unionize began in earnest last September, when the team filed a petition to unionize with the National Labor Relations Board. In an opinion piece for the student newspaper, The Dartmouth, players Romeo Myrthil and Cade Haskins argue that they should be paid either with hourly wages comparable to other campus jobs or with scholarships, which would alleviate the need for students to juggle part-time jobs alongside athletic and academic commitments. They also want Dartmouth to be responsible for insurance deductibles and long-term disability costs for students who suffer serious injuries at games and practices.
Early last month, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that the athletes should be considered school employees, clearing the way for the vote. 
The vote comes after mounting public and legal pressure for the NCAA to rethink its longstanding business model, which for more than a century allowed it to rake in huge profits off the backs of student-athletes who received little to no compensation. But even after the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in 2021 that student athletes could be paid, only the very top players benefited from their newfound ability to get brand deals and corporate sponsorships. Unionizing could allow a greater number of college athletes to negotiate compensation with their universities. 
For months, Dartmouth has fought the players’ organizing attempt, allegedly telling them that unionizing could get them kicked out of the Ivy League or the NCAA and insisting that the players were students, not employees. A day before the vote, the NLRB threw out a request from the school to reconsider its ruling that the athletes are Dartmouth employees. 
While the vote is major step, the players still have a ways to go before officially unionizing. The school could file an objection with the NLRB, delaying negotiations until current students have graduated. Myrthil and Haskins told the Associated Press they hope that freshmen will carry on the fight.
Correction, March 5: An earlier version of this story misspelled Cade Haskins’ and Romeo Myrthil’s names.