Labor board deals blow to college players union plan

CHICAGO — The National Labor Relations Board on Monday threw out a historic ruling that gave Northwestern University football players the go-ahead to form the nation’s first college athletes’ union, saying the prospect of union and nonunion teams could throw off the competitive balance in college football.

The unanimous ruling by the five-member NLRB (three Democrats, two Republicans) concludes that letting Northwestern football players unionize could lead to different standards at different schools — from the amount of money players receive to the amount of time they can practice.

Northwestern became the focal point of the labor fight in January 2014, when a handful of football players called the NCAA a “dictatorship” and announced plans to form the first U.S. labor union for college athletes.

Quarterback Kain Colter detailed the College Athletes Players Association at a news conference, flanked by leaders of the United Steelworkers union that has lent its organizing expertise and presumably will help bankroll the court fight.

Monday’s seven-page ruling cites federal law and contends that unionized football players at Northwestern would not promote the “uniformity” and “stability” between workers and management that it says is the goal of U.S. labor relations law.