BOSTON — The Dartmouth men's basketball team on Tuesday dropped its attempt to unionize, abruptly ending a push to become the first college athletes to bargain for a contract in order to avoid a potentially damaging precedent from a National Labor Relations Board that soon will be controlled by Republicans.
Service Employees International Union Local 560 filed a request to withdraw the NLRB petition rather than take its chances with an unfriendly labor board likely to take over in the new presidential administration. The board's regional director approved the request later Tuesday.
''While our strategy is shifting, we will continue to advocate for just compensation, adequate health coverage, and safe working conditions for varsity athletes at Dartmouth," local president Chris Peck said in a statement that called collective bargaining ''the only viable pathway to address issues'' facing college athletics today.
Although the NCAA considers players ''student-athletes,'' the Dartmouth players petitioned the labor board in 2023 for the right to unionize, saying the New Hampshire school exercised so much control over their schedules and working conditions that they met the legal definition of employees. A regional official agreed, and the team voted 13-2 in March to join SEIU Local 560, which already represents some Dartmouth workers.
The school said it would refuse to bargain with the players, a strategy designed to force the case into federal court. Before sitting down at the bargaining table, the players would need favorable decisions from an NLRB that currently has two openings that will be filled by President-elect Donald Trump after his Jan. 20 inauguration.
In a statement, the school maintained that the decision to classify the players as employees was ''incorrect and not supported by legal precedent.''
''Dartmouth has built productive relationships with the unions that are part of our campus community and have deep respect for our 1,500 union colleagues. In this isolated instance, however, we did not believe unionization was appropriate,'' the school said. ''We will continue to support our men's basketball team and all our students in their athletic endeavors which complement and enhance their academic experience at Dartmouth.''
Cade Haskins and Romeo Myrthil, the two Dartmouth players who initiated the union effort, did not immediately respond to text messages from The Associated Press seeking comment. But the union praised them for their efforts.
