Steelworkers Organizng Athletes

Awhile back I got a call from an organizer for the Steelworkers asking about how we managed to get graduate students defined as employees and how that might work for "student-athletes." Other than chuckling about Steelworkers getting in on the student-employee game, I didn't think much of it, but the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review ran an article on a lawsuit filed by a group affiliated with the Steelworkers.

Backed by the Pittsburgh-based United Steelworkers Union, the coalition wants the NCAA to revise rules governing scholarship athletes, the amateur stars in a lucrative commercial enterprise.

Last year, the CAC filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of 20,000 current and former Division 1-A football and major Division 1 basketball players from 144 schools, including the University of Pittsburgh, Penn State University and West Virginia University.

The suit claims the NCAA violated antitrust laws and seeks increases in scholarships to cover full costs of attendance, elimination of earning caps, better health care coverage and higher death benefits. It contends athletes need $2,500 to $3,000 more per year for incidental expenses, which the NCAA eliminated in 1973 to cut costs.

There seems to be some support for it among academic types:

Ellen Staurowsky, a professor at Ithaca College in New York and an advisory board member of the National Institute for Sports Reform, said those conditions create an unfair labor relationship.

"The demands placed on these athletes are different than for any other students. This has created a whole class of students whose existence on campus hinges on their ability to produce revenue," said Staurowsky, who favors a system that offers need-based aid or guarantees four-year scholarships.

"If that's not going to happen ... I do think that we need to acknowledge the fact that the revenue producers really are campus employees."

And well-known sporting types:

Retired Louisiana State University basketball coach Dale Brown said he's considered "a rogue" for fighting what he perceives as hypocrisy in the NCAA. Brown, whose teams made Final Four appearances in 1981 and 1986, remembers "poverty-stricken" athletes struggling to survive.

"Unscrupulous agents see that and will hit on them. I lost one player ... I know an agent made him go pro because he was advancing the player and his mother money," Brown said.

Two things to think about:
1. Scholarships are not guaranteed for four years, they renew every year. If a player is hurt or the university needs the scholarship, then athletes are s.o.l.

2. At least at the UO, the athlete stipend is the equivalent of a TA salary. So all the quotes about having money for food and housing, but not "taking a girl out on a date" should be taken with a grain of salt. Unless they shouldn't.

And then the question for debate is what the TA position should be on this.