Monday’s seven-page ruling cites federal law and contends that unionized football players at Northwestern would not promote the “uniformity” and “stability” between workers and management that it says is the goal of U.S. labor relations law.
While NLRB decisions are sometimes split, the three Democrats and two Republicans on the board all agreed.
Under U.S. law, an employee is regarded as someone who, among other things, receives compensation for a service and is under the direct control of managers. In Northwestern’s case, Ohr concluded coaches are equivalent to business managers and scholarships are a form of pay.
The ruling was welcome news for the NCAA, the dominant umbrella organization for U.S. college athletics. The NCAA has been under increasing scrutiny over its amateurism rules and has been in court fighting lawsuits from former athletes over everything from head injuries to revenue earned based on the use of their likenesses in video games.