Dartmouth basketball players’ union accuses school of unfair labor practices over refusal to bargain

The union representing Dartmouth’s men’s basketball team filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the school on Wednesday for refusing to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement with the players.

Service Employees International Union Local 560, which already represents other Dartmouth workers, said the failure to bargain violated both labor law and the school’s own code of conduct.

“For nearly 60 years, Dartmouth has had a tradition of negotiating fair and equitable union contracts with our local union,” union president Chris Peck said in a statement. “It is high time that the Dartmouth administration avoids looming financial and legal liabilities by seizing this opportunity to show leadership, as the players have done, and to live up to its own rhetoric about the importance of both community and dialogue.”

A regional director of the National Labor Relations Board ruled this spring that Dartmouth basketball players were employees of the school, clearing the way for them to unionize. The players subsequently voted 13-2 to affiliate with SEIU Local 560.

Dartmouth responded by announcing that it would not negotiate with the players — a tactic intended to push the case to court in the hope that a federal judge would overturn the NLRB’s decision. “This is the only leverage Dartmouth has to have this case heard in federal court,” the school said at the time.

The school said players are “students whose educational program includes athletics.”

“Athletes in the Ivy League are not employees,” Dartmouth said. “Given Dartmouth’s decades-long commitment to athletics as an extension of our academic mission, we believe the regional director made an extraordinary mistake in treating these students as employees.”

Dartmouth is also asking for a full board review of the regional director’s decision.