A Dartmouth Athletics banner hangs outside Alumni Gymnasium on the Dartmouth University campus in Hanover, N.H. Dartmouth basketball players voted Tuesday to unionize.
Jimmy Golen/AP
HANOVER, N.H. — The Dartmouth men’s basketball team voted to unionize Tuesday in an unprecedented step toward forming the first labor union for college athletes and another attack on the NCAA’s deteriorating amateur business model.
In an election supervised by the National Labor Relations Board in the school’s Human Resources offices, the players voted 13-2 to join Service Employees International Union Local 560, which already represents some Dartmouth workers.
The school can still appeal to the NLRB and the federal courts, which could delay negotiations over a collective bargaining agreement until long after the current members of the basketball team have graduated.