Players from the Dartmouth men’s basketball team filed a petition on Wednesday to unionize. The petition, which lists 15 players as the number of employees and the college as the employer, was filed with the National Labor Relations Board in Boston, Mass.
This is the second time a college team has attempted to unionize in the last decade, following Northwestern football, which tried to do so in 2014. That attempt ended in 2015, as the NLRB National Board denied Northwestern’s request, fearing it would’ve created a competitive imbalance.
“We have the utmost respect for our students and for unions generally,” a Dartmouth College spokesperson said in a statement, via the Associated Press. “We are carefully considering this petition with the aim of responding promptly yet thoughtfully in accordance with Dartmouth’s educational mission and priorities.”
Dartmouth is a longtime member of the Ivy League, dating all the way back to 1911. The Big Green have not made the NCAA Tournament since 1959 and have not had a winning record since 1999.
