Unions hit more college campuses....this time in North Carolina

[AU64 10,122]

Will be interesting to see how many athletes are dumb enough to "join" the state employees union, begin paying dues and see their scholarships become recognized as "income".....and of course in NC, as noted in the article, employees do not have the right to negotiate their wages.

http://news.yahoo.com/union-north-carolina-welcomes-college-athletes-234228202--spt.html

[keesler 6,026]

I'd personally like to see how the NCAA deals with a scholarship student-athlete that becomes considered a state employee, pays union dues, and who's scholarship money is considered income. I'd think the student-athlete would no longer be eligible to play an NCAA santioned sport and therefore the scholarship would cease to exist. Hopefully someone is educationing these players and they fully understand the risk they take by joining a union - that free education, room/board, books, etc. may get thrown out the window.

[WarEagle84 0]

Negotiating wages doesn't seem to be a concern for those pushing for a players union, at least initially. And under current IRS rules, any scholarship amount in excess of tuition, fees, and books is already taxable. If that's their only income, they won't make enough to have to pay taxes. It would take an IRS or Tax Court ruling to consider the tuition/fees/book money ordinary income, and that is highly unlikely. Just because one government agency deems it income for the purposes of making them an employee does not mean every other agency has to be consistent or logical in how they characterize it.

I suspect there will be inquiries from a few players, but when they find out how much their union dues will be, I don't see many signing up. Unless they make another rule waiving or greatly reducing dues for college students (which is plausible) this won't mean much.

[AU64 10,122]

Negotiating wages doesn't seem to be a concern for those pushing for a players union, at least initially. And under current IRS rules, any scholarship amount in excess of tuition, fees, and books is already taxable. If that's their only income, they won't make enough to have to pay taxes. It would take an IRS or Tax Court ruling to consider the tuition/fees/book money ordinary income, and that is highly unlikely. Just because one government agency deems it income for the purposes of making them an employee does not mean every other agency has to be consistent or logical in how they characterize it.

I suspect there will be inquiries from a few players, but when they find out how much their union dues will be, I don't see many signing up. Unless they make another rule waiving or greatly reducing dues for college students (which is plausible) this won't mean much.

Probably so...but IMO this was just a PR move by that union trying to get in the news....considering that the union is not actually trying to win representation and thus has no way of representing the players for any labor relations purposes. And if the school were to recognize the players as "employees"....likely they would immediately be ineligible under current NCAA rules.

The whole deal is a farce...but I bet some disgruntled players will sign up.

[cptau 169]

The unions have highly paid members in the the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL. They want a piece of all that money floating into the colleges. They could care less about the student athletes. They'll get the good ones as members when they move up to the pros. If the colleges could funnel money into the unions some other way, they would go away.