Members of the Dartmouth men’s basketball team have filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board, seeking to form a union.

The 15 players filed their paperwork Wednesday and intend to join the Local 560 chapter of the Service Employees International Union, based in Hanover, N.H.

If the players succeed in being recognized as a union, they would become university employees and also gain the right to collectively bargain.

The NLRB has shown it has become more willing to consider college athletes as employees.

In a memo on Sept. 29, 2021, NLRB general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo took the position that some student-athletes are employees under the National Labor Relations Act and should receive employee protections.

In 2014, Northwestern’s football team attempted to form a union but was denied by the NLRB. In its ruling, the organization said that granting union status “would not promote labor stability due to the nature and structure of NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision.”

Dartmouth, of the Ivy League, has not had a winning men’s basketball season since 1998-99, when it finished 14-12. The Big Green have not been to an NCAA Tournament since the 1958-59 season.

–Field Level Media