By The PA. AFL-CIO
– The Pennsylvania AFL-CIO joins with the United Steelworkers in reiterating their full support for greater protections for scholarship athletes despite the decision of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to decline jurisdiction, for the time being, over college football player efforts to form a union to have a voice and to end the exploitation of college athletes.
USW President Leo Gerard said in a statement that, “while we are disappointed by the NLRB decision, the USW remains committed as ever to the idea that scholarship athletes deserve the same rights and protections afforded to other Americans. We will not stop fighting until athletes secure the basic protections they so desperately need.”
Eventually, Gerard said, the players will win the right to collectively bargain, Maybe it won’t happen in 2015, but before today’s athletes send their children to college, every college scholarship football player and every college scholarship basketball player will be a proud union member and no longer exploited on their jobs.
The USW provided legal assistance to the Northwestern University players in their attempt to join the College Athletes Players Association (CAPA), the first union seeking to represent college athletes in collective bargaining. The protections the athletes sought include guaranteed scholarships that cover the full cost of attending school, a greater emphasis on concussion treatment, and better health care for student athletes during and after their playing days.
Kain Colter, the former Northwestern quarterback who led the unionization effort stated, “College athletes everywhere should take note. A few dozen 18- to 20-year-old Northwestern football players joined together to challenge an unjust system, while we hoped for a different ruling from the NLRB, we’ve succeeded in starting a conversation that is already changing the culture of college athletes as we know it.”
CAPA President Ramogi Huma, a former football player at UCLA, said the decision is disappointing because it’s likely to delay action. It may cause a loss of time and leverage in securing what players need for their safety,” Huma said, “And any delay can have serious ramifications for players.”
Both President Bloomingdale and Secretary-Treasurer Snyder on behalf of the members and leadership of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO expressed their full support and commitment to both CAPA and the USW in their efforts form their union now, to have their voices heard.
Source – http://www.paaflcio.org/?p=6295
