Northwestern University football players cannot form a union.
The National Labor Relations Board declined to assert jurisdiction in a case over whether Northwestern football players have employee rights.
The case came to the board following a ruling by the NLRB’s regional Chicago office that established football players at private universities as employees. The NLRB’s decision not to assert jurisdiction nullified that ruling.
Following the recent ruling, the board issued a news release explaining that allowing a union to go forward would disrupt “labor stability” in college football. However, the board advised that the decision was “narrowly focused to apply only to the players in this case and does not preclude reconsideration of this issue in the future.”
