Dartmouth men’s basketball players withdraw petition to unionize

The Dartmouth Big Green basketball players are reportedly withdrawing their petition with the National Labor Relations Board to unionize.

This comes after the Dartmouth men’s basketball players voted 13-2 in March to unionize. That led to players being represented by Service Employees International Union Local 560. At the time, it was a landmark move for college athletics, as it appeared to be another step toward employment.

“By filing a request to withdraw our petition today, we seek to preserve the precedent set by this exceptional group of young people on the men’s varsity basketball team,” Chris Peck, President of the Local 560, wrote. “They have pushed the conversation of employment and collective bargaining in college sports forward and made history by being classified as employees, winning their union election 13-2, and becoming the first certified bargaining unit of college athletics in the country. We are extremely disappointed that Dartmouth chose not to respect the team’s decision and federal labor law by refusing to bargain, thus violating their own Code of Ethical Business Conduct.”

BREAKING: Dartmouth men’s basketball players are withdrawing their petition with the National Labor Relations Board to unionize. Huge implications here. Story to come pic.twitter.com/F2RETPkqDn

— Amanda Christovich (@achristovichh) December 31, 2024

“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. The NCAA and Dartmouth still face an uphill battle for a special antitrust exemption from Congress, leaving collective bargaining as the only viable pathway to address issues like the transfer portal, eligibility rules, and NIL payments. As such, we will double down on our support for an Ivy League Players Association, expand our group licensing program, and continue to seek legal and administrative avenues to preserve and expand the rights of college athletes.”

Since the decision to unionize, the basketball team faced an immediate uphill battle with Dartmouth refusing to collectively bargain with the athletes. Immediately after the vote, the school also released a statement making it clear that their position was that athletes are not employees at the school.

In response to the school refusing to collectively bargain with them, Dartmouth previously filed an unfair labor practice charge to the National Labor Relations Board against the college. At the time, they said that Dartmouth was not bargaining in “good faith.”

Considering athletes at a college or university employees would be a massive change to the current model. However, in a time of massive change in the sport, the efforts of the Dartmouth men’s basketball team have appeared to be another step in that direction.

At the time, former college football coach and sitting United States senator Tommy Tuberville expressed grave concerns about the move to unionize.

“They’re going to kill the goose that laid the golden egg—all these athletes are—because it pays for everything. Scholarships are paid — men and women — but there’s a lot of people that don’t bring in money to universities. But what’s going to happen here is you’re going to see groups of people that’s going to try to unionize and then it’s going to spread across the country. We’ve been fighting it here. Joe Manchin and I did a NIL bill that was bipartisan, but it kept unionization out, but the Democrats wanted it in,” Tuberville said.

“That’s the reason we haven’t gotten it to the floor. But this will absolutely kill college sports. You know, the last time I looked, they’re not employees. These students are student-athletes. And if you want the federal government involved and ruin something, you try to make the student-athletes employees. Soon the federal government will get involved, unions will get involved, and it will be a total disaster.”

Even with the step to withdraw their petition to unionize, Peck made it clear that the team wasn’t going to end its fight for further rights.