Despite a ruling that allowed scholarship student-athletes at UNC-system schools to join the State Employees Association of North Carolina, none have joined yet, said Toni Davis, a spokeswoman for the union.
In May 2014, the union ruled that because they fall under the definition of a state employee, scholarship student-athletes at UNC-system schools could join.
Davis said they are at the planning and development stage of deciding the role that student-athletes would have in the union, but the opportunity is currently available for student-athletes to join the association.
“Right now, what we did in our original vote at the association was simply to amend our rules to allow (scholarship student) athletes to join the association,” Davis said.
Frank LoMonte, the Student Press Law Center director, said joining a union in North Carolina may not entail the same benefits as joining a union in another state.
“There is a state law that prevents employees of a government agency, such as UNC, from engaging in ‘collective bargaining’ with their employer,” he said in an email. “Meaning a negotiation that leads to a binding contract about working conditions.”
Director of Athletics Bubba Cunningham said he closely followed a March ruling by a regional office of the National Labor Relations Board that recognized scholarship football players as employees under labor laws. He said he worried the ruling would change student-athletes’ relationship with universities — turning athletes into employees instead of students.
“I’m concerned about it because it affects the collegiate model,” he said. “It affects what we do at 1,100 NCAA institutions. There are 460,000 student athletes at the NCAA level.”
