On March 5, members of the men’s basketball team overwhelmingly voted to unionize, joining the Service Employees International Union, Local 560. The vote, 13-2, took place at 7 Lebanon St at 1:10 p.m. The men’s basketball team’s unionization effort is the first successful unionization attempt in the country by college athletes.
Today’s vote took place after the National Labor Relations Board ruled on Feb. 5 that members of the men’s basketball team are university players, and ordered an election to vote on unionization, according to previous reporting from The Dartmouth. The basketball team announced their intention to unionize in September 2023.
The College released a statement on Dartmouth News indicating its position that the men’s basketball players are not employees of the College and that they should not be able to unionize.
“The students on the men’s basketball team are not in any way employed by Dartmouth,” the statement read. “For Ivy League students who are varsity athletes, academics are of primary importance, and athletic pursuit is part of the educational experience. Classifying these students as employees simply because they play basketball is as unprecedented as it is inaccurate. We, therefore, do not believe unionization is appropriate.”
A full story will be posted shortly.
