By Mason Levinson

– Northwestern University football players were given the right to form college sports’ first labor union in a ruling that could seismically change the $16 billion business of top-level university athletics.

Peter Ohr, the National Labor Relations Board regional director in Chicago, ruled that all scholarship football players at the Evanston, Illinois, school who have not exhausted their college eligibility are “employees” and ordered an immediate election to create a union board.

Northwestern said it would appeal yesterday’s 24-page ruling, which for now only affects athletes at private schools and not at public universities, to the full NLRB in Washington.

The decision, which comes as the National Collegiate Athletic Association is defending separate lawsuits that challenge its authority, has the potential to force a change to the business model of college sports, which generate $16 billion annually in revenue.

“Today, college athletes are employees,” said Ramogi Huma, a co-founder and president of the Northwestern players’ group that won the right to unionize. “It’s a first step toward forever changing the balance of power and guaranteeing players have a seat at the table and the right to bargain for basic protections.”

In his ruling, Ohr said the scholarship football players are employees because they are compensated and come under the university’s control. The NLRB governs the rights of private-sector employees, meaning that the ruling only affects athletes who compete at private schools. Public-school players seeking to unionize would have to gain approval from state-run labor boards.

‘Uncharted Territory’

“This is totally uncharted territory,” Paul Haagen, a professor of sports and contract law at the Duke University School of Law in Durham, North Carolina, said in a telephone interview, adding that it’s less likely the players will prevail at the national level. Duke, like Northwestern, is a private university.

The Northwestern players submitted a petition to the NLRB in late January, seeking to give 85 scholarship players the right to vote on representation and stating that NCAA rules were unjust.

The group is trying to secure guaranteed coverage of sports-related medical expenses for current and former athletes, as well as compensation for sponsorships. The players also are seeking to create a trust fund to help former players finish their degrees and push for an increase in athletic scholarships.

Eliminating Schools?

Henry Bienen, Northwestern’s president emeritus, said this month that giving athletes the right to unionize might chase schools from top-level intercollegiate sports.

“A union means collective bargaining over a whole range of issues,” said Bienen, a member of the Knight Commission whose mission is to ensure athletic programs operate within the educational goals of their schools. “If we got into collective bargaining situations, I would not take for granted that the Northwesterns of the world would continue to play Division I sports.”

Alan Cubbage, vice president for university relations at Northwestern, said in a statement that the school was disappointed by the decision.

“While we respect the NLRB process and the regional director’s opinion, we disagree with it,” Cubbage said. “Northwestern believes strongly that our student-athletes are not employees, but students. Unionization and collective bargaining are not the appropriate methods to address the concerns raised by student-athletes.”

The NCAA, while not a party to the NLRB action, said in a statement that it disagrees with the decision and opposes a move to “completely throw away a system that has helped literally millions of students over the past decade alone to attend college.”

Two Lawsuits

Separately, the NCAA and five top conferences were sued twice this month by college players seeking to improve their financial standing.

A group of football and basketball players filed an antitrust suit that called the organizations a “cartel” that generates billions of dollars while illegally capping the pay of student athletes. The suit is seeking to bar the NCAA and the conferences from stopping schools that want to compensate players.

Also this month, the NCAA and five conferences were sued in San Francisco by Shawne Alston, a former West Virginia University football player who claims they conspired to limit the value of scholarships to less than the actual cost of attendance.

The NCAA also is a defendant in a case brought by former UCLA basketball player Ed O’Bannon and other athletes, who seek to profit from the use of their likeness in video games.

Further Changes

“It’s a very significant move,” James Quinn, a senior partner at New York-based Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP, said in a telephone interview. “Given all of the other pressures on the NCAA and member institutions, things are going to change.”

Richard Southall, director of the College Sport Research Institute at the University of South Carolina, said the ruling could lead to further changes.

“If this stands, if the players are employees, the next question is, do they have the right to control the use of their name, likeness and image?” he said. “Can they be forced to sign that over?”

The 123 schools in the NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision turned a $1.3 billion profit on $3.2 billion in revenue in the fiscal year ended June 2013, according to data schools submit to the U.S. Department of Education.

NLRB hearing officer Joyce Hofstra took five days of testimony last month from individuals called by the players and the school.

Sacrificing Bodies

Northwestern quarterback Kain Colter, a co-founder of the players association who compared the NCAA system to a dictatorship before the hearings, testified that players spend 40 to 50 hours a week on football and have to sacrifice their bodies to do so. He also said that the time commitment kept him from pursuing a plan to enter the school’s pre-med program.

Among people Northwestern called to testify were football coach Pat Fitzgerald, school administrators and three former players who said that football didn’t keep them from succeeding as students.

College athletes, who can receive scholarships but are not paid, help generate more than $16 billion in television contracts, as well as revenue from sponsorships, ticket and merchandise sales, and payouts for championships.

“The Northwestern case will work its way through the court system over the next few years, and we will closely monitor it and maintain a dialogue with our student-athletes about how we can improve,” Pat Haden, athletic director at the University of Southern California, said in a March 6 statement on a university blog. “I have looked at the demands of the Northwestern players, and quite honestly, we provide most of those already at USC.”

The United Steelworkers Union backed the players’ NLRB petition and is paying their legal fees.

The case is Northwestern University, 13-RC-121359, National Labor Relations Board, Region 13 (Chicago).

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-26/northwestern-players-can-become-first-college-union-nlrb-rules.html

By John McDevitt

— Philadelphia’s Civil Service Commission will hold a hearing Wednesday to consider a new classification of employee — a fire service paramedic.

The city will propose a new deployment model for paramedics and emergency medical technicians. It wants to replace one of two paramedics on city ambulances with an EMT.

The city’s Director of Public Safety Michael Resnick says the plan would increase the number of staffed ambulances available for dispatch.

“The thrust of this plan is to augment the service by hiring these fire service EMTs, pair them with paramedics so that way you spread your forces evenly throughout the city so they are not concentrated in certain areas at certain times of the day,” Resnick said.

The city also proposes to have supervisors in SUVs who are also paramedics to roll to ambulance paramedics as back up.

Joe Schulle is the President of the Firefighters and Paramedics Union Local 22.

“This is an effort to spread the paramedics more thinly throughout the city rather than hire the needed number of paramedics,” Schulle said.

The union says the proposed salary for an EMT is 30 percent less than that of a paramedic.

Source: http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2014/03/25/phila-firefighters-union-opposes-new-deployment-model-for-paramedics-and-emts/

By Laura Clawson

– This is the week! Again! This is the week, that is, that the Senate will once again attempt to pass an emergency unemployment aid extension that House Republicans will refuse to even bring up for a vote. The bipartisan unemployment deal the Senate will be considering has some problems, mostly ones created in the effort to win the final Republican vote needed to break a filibuster, and of course House Speaker John Boehner’s response is to use the problems as an excuse to kill an unemployment extension altogether rather than to look for a fix. A fix should be possible:

Labor Secretary Tom Perez sent a letter to Senate leaders on Friday saying he is “confident that there are workable solutions for all of the concerns raised by [the National Association of State Workforce Agencies]” and that “any challenges pale in comparison to those to the need that the long-term unemployed have for these benefits.”

The Nevada head of unemployment insurance operations said he was ready to implement the bill regardless: “We would stand ready and do it. … We’ll get through it, just like we have in the past.”

Meanwhile, even some Republicans are starting to get openly frustrated with obstruction from their party:

Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), the main Republican working on the deal, said it was “extremely disappointing that, no matter what solution is reached, there is some excuse to deny these much-needed benefits.”

This should not exactly come as a surprise to Heller. There’s always an excuse.

House Democrats are circulating a discharge petition to force a vote on unemployment aid, but so far no Republicans have signed it. Getting a House vote on this vital bill, whether through a successful discharge petition or action by Boehner, will require the kind of public pressure even House Republicans can’t ignore.

Source: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/03/24/1287019/-Jobless-aid-to-get-yet-another-Senate-vote-as-House-continues-to-balk

PhillyLabor.com would like to thank DC-9/Graphics Communications Union 14-M President, Kurt Freeman and Graphics Communications Union 16-N, President, Joe Inemer for being the featured guest speakers at our Philly Labor Meet and Greet Event last Wednesday. Both Joe and Kurt did a phenomenal job as all in attendance appreciated their words of passion and commitment to their union’s memberships, the Philadelphia area union community, their charitable endeavors and the men and women serving in our military.

Philly Labor would also like to send special thanks out to DC 21 Painters and Allied Trades Union, Business Manager, Joe Ashdale and the entire staff at DC 21 for allowing us to host the event in their beautiful facility. It was and will continue to be very much appreciated.

Sincerely,

PhillyLabor.com

By Jeff Frantz

– There’s a new proposal to modernize — not privatize — Pennsylvania’s state store system, with the aim of putting more money in the state coffers.

State Rep. Gene DiGirolamo, R-Bucks County, announced his plan Thursday in a memo asking other lawmakers to sign on as cosponsors. His proposal would give the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Broad many of the things it has asked for in recent years, like the ability to open more stores on Sundays and have more pricing flexibility.

If passed, DiGirolamo estimates the LCB would bring in an extra $185 million in profits after the first full year. Theoretically, much of that money could then be passed on to the state.

It remains to be seen if this proposal has any legs.

Any changes to the way Pennsylvanians get their booze has been stifled in recent years in a debate between those who want to expand the LCB and those who want to eliminate it.

Many in Harrisburg, including House Liquor Control Committee Chairman Rep. John Taylor, R-Philadelphia, believe privatization backers won’t vote for anything that entrenches the current system, which DiGirolamo’s proposal appears to do. At the same time, those who favor improving the state store system, especially in the Senate, have not been willing to vote for a phase out of the state stores.

Privatization backers, including Gov. Tom Corbett, believe privatization could happen this year. 

The possibilities for modernization crept up during budget hearings last month, particularly in the Senate, as lawmakers looked for more revenue options.

Here’s what DiGirolamo is proposing:

• Allow the LCB to open as many stores on Sunday as it feels is smart business, and let the LCB set the hours for those stores. Current law allows only 25 percent of state stores to open on Sundays, and says they must close by 5 p.m.
• Current law requires that every bottle sold in Pennsylvania is marked up the same percentage. This bill would allow the LCB to mark up some products less, and mark others up more. In the past, the LCB has said it can ultimately make more by selling at volume if some products are cheaper.
• Allow the LCB to set up loyalty programs that offer rewards for regular customers.
• Urge the LCB to expand its “store within a store” program that builds state stores within grocery stores.
• Speed up the process that the Department of General Services uses to review the leases for state stores, with an eye toward better long-range planning.
• Allow Pennsylvanians to receive direct shipments of wine and spirits at their homes, and allow the LCB to ship out of state.
• Allow the LCB to set up self-serve lottery machines in their stores.
• Allow the LCB to join a consortium of other states where the states control a portion of the liquor market, like Michigan and Ohio, with the goal of securing better prices. DiGirolamo’s memo says the LCB “may take the lead” in organizing such a buying program.

PhillyLabor.com Editorial – This Proposal would both generate an additional 185 million dollars in revenues for PA. along with saving the jobs of over 5,000 workers who work in the Wine and Spirit Stores throughout PA. This is an opportunity for Gov. Corbett and countless other proponents of privatization to do what’s in the best financial interests of the Commonwealth while at the same time maintaining the livelihoods of thousands of our residents whose families depend on them to live. This an obvious Win-Win for everyone. This is why we elect politicians in the first place, to make decisions that are in the best interest of their constituents. Anything less would be a disservice to all Pennsylvanians. Anything less would be Un-American!

Source: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2014/03/liquor_privatization_modernaza.html