The world of collegiate athletics is being shaken up once again, as the Dartmouth men’s basketball team appears headed for unionization.
The union itself is being spearheaded by the team’s forward, Cade Haskins, who was involved in the school’s student dining workers’ union, the Student Workers Collective at Dartmouth, according to aFeb. 9 NPR article from Andrea Hsu.
Haskins, who worked nights at the campus snack bar, saw his wage increase from $13.25 an hour, to $25 an hour as a supervisor. Now, he wants to bring unionized wages for the basketball team.
In September, all 15 players signed union authorization cards, according to the article.
A National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) hearing showed the board siding with the basketball team, saying that the players are workers of the college as they provide benefits to the college while Dartmouth maintains control over them.
Dartmouth says it will appeal the ruling, and the push back from the college on the basketball union was something that wasn’t seen with the student dining workers’ union.
College athletics have seen a shift in the past few years in terms of the dynamic between players and institutions. The Supreme Court ruled against the NCAA back in 2021 so that athletes can profit off of their name, image and likeness.
Athletes are workers in more ways than one. Sports are physically, and often mentally, taxing on the players themselves. While the players enjoy doing what they do, that does not mean it is not a job, and drawbacks come with being on a team.
For one, your free time becomes extremely limited. Between practices, traveling and games, an athlete may lose 30 hours or more of their time weekly dedicated solely to their sport. The time is spent doing physically straining activities that don’t pay the athletes a dime.
Being a student can already be considered a job in and of itself and it’s one that we pay for. However, you still have to make a living as a student, and combining course loads with athletics leaves little room for money-making opportunities. Student-athletes often have to pick up night shift jobs on campus just to pay for essentials.
Now you have a situation where student-athletes are essentially working three jobs, with only one of the jobs paying them anything, and usually not paying well. This, in my view, sets players up for failure. With all the talk about studentathlete mental health in the past few years, the importance of carving out time for yourself is a key component in maintaining positive mental health outcomes. Unfortunately, this is not able to happen for many, even those with perfect time management skills.
This is all not to mention the fact athletics have become an essential tool at colleges and universities’ disposal in recruitment and retention efforts. Sports are a big pull for prospective students who want to further their athletic career, with some in hopes of heading to major leagues.
Unfortunately, unlike major league sports such as hockey, baseball and football, collegiate athletics are not unionized. You do not get any benefits for the tremendous value you bring to whichever institution you end up attending. Even if athletes are passionate about their sport, passion does not pay the bills. D1 college athletics, particularly football and basketball, are sometimes just as popular as their major league counterparts. Yet players do not enjoy any of the benefits that should come from countless hours of labor, as well as ticket sales and screen time that comes from things like March Madness.
A fact sheet from the Economic Policy Institute showed an inverse relationship between union membership nationally and the share of income going to the top 10% of earners. As union membership has declined, the top 10% has raked in more and more money.
We are at a point in this country which I believe is a reckoning for worker’s rights, as the wealth gap increases and income inequality looms large. Without the labor of so many, including college athletes, countless companies and institutions would collapse.
I wish Dartmouth men’s basketball the best in their upcoming March 5 union election and hope it spreads a shock wave to collegiate athletes across the country to recognize the power they hold.
Nathan Hope can be contacted at
nhope@kscequinox.com
