By
Kevin B. Blackistone
Columnist
Feb. 3, 2021 at 5:33 a.m. CST
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Within minutes after President Biden was sworn in, he fired Peter Robb, the anti-unionist former president Donald Trump appointed as general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board. The action was not only swift but also historic: Robb, who obstinately refused an overture to resign, became the first NLRB general counsel in history to be canned.
But for tens of thousands of young adult workers known as college football and basketball players I hope Robb’s abrupt dismissal turns out to be more than trivial.
Robb’s first notable act, after the Senate confirmed him in November 2017, was to annul a memo by his predecessor, President Barack Obama appointee Richard Griffin, that stated college football players at private universities were employees who could seek to be treated as such.
Griffin’s note was his final observation about a 2014 effort by Northwestern University football players, led by quarterback Kain Colter and buttressed by United Steelworkers, to unionize. It failed in August 2015 because the national board said it considered college athletics beyond its jurisdiction. It ignored a ruling in March 2014 by the Chicago regional NLRB director, Peter Sung Ohr, that football players at Northwestern in suburban Chicago (my alma mater, for full disclosure) were no less school employees than any wage earners on campus and were entitled to organize.
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Well, guess whom Biden picked five days after his inauguration to supplant Robb? Ohr, who became acting general counsel Jan. 25.
EA Sports revives college football franchise as courts mull NCAA’s stance on amateurism
“He’s going to have a great amount of discretion and direction on how much [the NLRB is] going to enforce, if any, the rights of players,” John Adam, a Michigan labor lawyer who represented the Northwestern players, said this past weekend. “I don’t know that it’s sending a message. He may have been selected for many reasons unrelated to the Northwestern matter. But having him there, I think, is a good sign for the players, and workers in general. He’ll be much better than the prior general counsel.”
This doesn’t mean Ohr can immediately pick up where he was cut off years ago. College football and basketball players, who are predominantly Black males, aren’t about to get the paychecks, workers’ comp and long-term health-care insurance they deserve next semester. I wish it would be that easy, but it won’t be.
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It will take agitation, again. It will require another lot of players, like Northwestern’s football team, to demand a unionizing petition. Or it will take some current or former player to file an unfair labor practice charge.
But the atmosphere is more ripe for either of those events than when Colter et al. garnered Ohr’s ruling. And that ruling was rejected mostly on a technical interpretation and not, as Griffin affirmed, on merit.
“My sense is that between the organizing from last summer, and the continuing emergence and empowerment of women’s teams, that it would be possible to get more than one team to do this and more than one sport,” Ithaca College professor Ellen Staurowsky, who long has advocated for more equitable treatment of college athletes, wrote in an email last week. “I might be way too optimistic in that view, but with women’s basketball teams opting out of playing the remainder of their seasons because of health concerns, it seems the time is ripe to move this agenda forward.”
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Staurowsky was referencing the Virginia women, who opted out of their season in January. And the SMU team that called it quits just before New Year’s. And the Duke team that on Christmas decided not to play this season. All packed it in because of coronavirus worries.
Those decisions came on the heels of a halting college football season that had bowl games canceled because eligible teams didn’t want to chance pandemic travel, rivalry games called off, some conferences deciding not to play at all and those that did doing so in sparsely populated or empty stadiums. Many of those decisions were influenced by players and their families being uncomfortable carrying on their athletic careers while most everyone else associated with college campuses were being ordered to stay away.
She’s aiming to play Division III football this fall — at defensive back
Then there were the athletes emboldened last summer by protests across the country against lethal police acts against Black men and the systemic societal problems that made them possible. Pac-12 football players threatened to boycott practice and play until they got assurances about their well-being and social justice concerns. Mississippi football players said they no longer wanted to play with the state’s flag featuring the Confederate battle symbol flapping over their heads. A statue was moved and sheathed; the state banner was changed. Star Black players such as Oklahoma State’s Chuba Hubbard called out their White coaches for being insensitive to the sensibilities of those who make up most of their rosters.
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“It’s hard to get players who are beholden to the university, loyal to the coach, to take a stand, even if they’re not, as in the case of the Northwestern players, really criticizing the university,” Adam said. “Normally, when you have an election campaign, people are complaining about something: wages or benefits, whatever. So it’s more hostile. Here, they were doing it because they thought [Northwestern] was the place to do it, this was the university that would be the most receptive to it. Kain was praising the coach and the university. It wasn’t an attack upon them. It was a bigger issue: We need a voice, not just here, but elsewhere.”
The Northwestern players did vote on whether to form a union. The tally was never revealed. And after Ohr’s ruling was vetoed, their ballots were destroyed.
But the argument those players raised about the inequity of college sports didn’t dissipate. And now, suddenly, they have a referee in the game who understands.
Kevin B. Blackistone
Columnist
Feb. 3, 2021 at 5:33 a.m. CST
Add to list
Within minutes after President Biden was sworn in, he fired Peter Robb, the anti-unionist former president Donald Trump appointed as general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board. The action was not only swift but also historic: Robb, who obstinately refused an overture to resign, became the first NLRB general counsel in history to be canned.
But for tens of thousands of young adult workers known as college football and basketball players I hope Robb’s abrupt dismissal turns out to be more than trivial.
Robb’s first notable act, after the Senate confirmed him in November 2017, was to annul a memo by his predecessor, President Barack Obama appointee Richard Griffin, that stated college football players at private universities were employees who could seek to be treated as such.
Griffin’s note was his final observation about a 2014 effort by Northwestern University football players, led by quarterback Kain Colter and buttressed by United Steelworkers, to unionize. It failed in August 2015 because the national board said it considered college athletics beyond its jurisdiction. It ignored a ruling in March 2014 by the Chicago regional NLRB director, Peter Sung Ohr, that football players at Northwestern in suburban Chicago (my alma mater, for full disclosure) were no less school employees than any wage earners on campus and were entitled to organize.
AD
Well, guess whom Biden picked five days after his inauguration to supplant Robb? Ohr, who became acting general counsel Jan. 25.
EA Sports revives college football franchise as courts mull NCAA’s stance on amateurism
“He’s going to have a great amount of discretion and direction on how much [the NLRB is] going to enforce, if any, the rights of players,” John Adam, a Michigan labor lawyer who represented the Northwestern players, said this past weekend. “I don’t know that it’s sending a message. He may have been selected for many reasons unrelated to the Northwestern matter. But having him there, I think, is a good sign for the players, and workers in general. He’ll be much better than the prior general counsel.”
This doesn’t mean Ohr can immediately pick up where he was cut off years ago. College football and basketball players, who are predominantly Black males, aren’t about to get the paychecks, workers’ comp and long-term health-care insurance they deserve next semester. I wish it would be that easy, but it won’t be.
AD
It will take agitation, again. It will require another lot of players, like Northwestern’s football team, to demand a unionizing petition. Or it will take some current or former player to file an unfair labor practice charge.
But the atmosphere is more ripe for either of those events than when Colter et al. garnered Ohr’s ruling. And that ruling was rejected mostly on a technical interpretation and not, as Griffin affirmed, on merit.
“My sense is that between the organizing from last summer, and the continuing emergence and empowerment of women’s teams, that it would be possible to get more than one team to do this and more than one sport,” Ithaca College professor Ellen Staurowsky, who long has advocated for more equitable treatment of college athletes, wrote in an email last week. “I might be way too optimistic in that view, but with women’s basketball teams opting out of playing the remainder of their seasons because of health concerns, it seems the time is ripe to move this agenda forward.”
AD
Staurowsky was referencing the Virginia women, who opted out of their season in January. And the SMU team that called it quits just before New Year’s. And the Duke team that on Christmas decided not to play this season. All packed it in because of coronavirus worries.
Those decisions came on the heels of a halting college football season that had bowl games canceled because eligible teams didn’t want to chance pandemic travel, rivalry games called off, some conferences deciding not to play at all and those that did doing so in sparsely populated or empty stadiums. Many of those decisions were influenced by players and their families being uncomfortable carrying on their athletic careers while most everyone else associated with college campuses were being ordered to stay away.
She’s aiming to play Division III football this fall — at defensive back
Then there were the athletes emboldened last summer by protests across the country against lethal police acts against Black men and the systemic societal problems that made them possible. Pac-12 football players threatened to boycott practice and play until they got assurances about their well-being and social justice concerns. Mississippi football players said they no longer wanted to play with the state’s flag featuring the Confederate battle symbol flapping over their heads. A statue was moved and sheathed; the state banner was changed. Star Black players such as Oklahoma State’s Chuba Hubbard called out their White coaches for being insensitive to the sensibilities of those who make up most of their rosters.
AD
“It’s hard to get players who are beholden to the university, loyal to the coach, to take a stand, even if they’re not, as in the case of the Northwestern players, really criticizing the university,” Adam said. “Normally, when you have an election campaign, people are complaining about something: wages or benefits, whatever. So it’s more hostile. Here, they were doing it because they thought [Northwestern] was the place to do it, this was the university that would be the most receptive to it. Kain was praising the coach and the university. It wasn’t an attack upon them. It was a bigger issue: We need a voice, not just here, but elsewhere.”
The Northwestern players did vote on whether to form a union. The tally was never revealed. And after Ohr’s ruling was vetoed, their ballots were destroyed.
But the argument those players raised about the inequity of college sports didn’t dissipate. And now, suddenly, they have a referee in the game who understands.
