Top 10 “Consequences” of Big Labor on College Campuses

While the House Education & the Workforce Committee holds hearings on the potential impact of organizing on college campuses, the reality is, it’s already happening. All over the country. All the time. Here are some of the real “consequences”:

  1. Service Workers Are Being Treated Fairly And Paid Living Wages Service workers have formed unions at Georgetown University and hundreds of other campuses.
  2. Adjunct Professors Don’t Die In Poverty A long-time Duquesne adjunct faculty members died of a heart attack after working a fast food job to supplement her income as a professor, sparking an organizing campaign.
  1. Graduate Teaching-Assistants Can Afford Continued Education and Health Insurance TAs at New York University and UCONN recently joined tens of thousands of America’s best and brightest as unionized teaching and research assistants at more than 60 prestigious campuses including UC Berkeley, Michigan, Washington and Wisconsin.
  2. Colleges End Support of Sweatshop Labor Students at over 150 schools have organized chapters of United Students Against Sweatshops and less collegiate apparel is manufactured in abusive, dangerous sweatshop conditions .
  3. Cafeteria Workers Are Allowed Sick Days Simmons College and Lesley University workers win paid sick leave through their union.

The football players at Northwestern University have sparked a national conversation about college athletes organizing. Here are the kinds of “consequences” we might expect from this movement:

  1. Reduced Risk Of Sports-Related Traumatic Brain Injury. College athletes suffered more than 29,000 concussions between 2004 and 2009 but the NCAA has refused to enact any doctor recommended protections.
  2. Guaranteed Medical Coverage. As it stands, too many former athletes are stuck with expensive, sports-related medical bills for injuries that hobble them long after they graduate.
  3. Scholarships That Fully Cover The Cost Of Attending College. Currently, “full” scholarships are capped by the NCAA below the actual cost of attending by $3,000-$5,000 per player per year, forcing some students to go hungry.
  1. Higher Graduation Rates. The College Athletes Players Association wants to establish an educational trust fund to help former players complete their degrees and reward those who graduate on time.

5.    A Say On Rules That Govern Athletes’ Lives. For decades, businessmen and administrators have governed the NCAA with little input from the players themselves. They’ve imposed thousands of rules that govern every aspect of a player’s life. Players want the constitutional right of due process if they are accused of a rule violation to ensure punishments are fair and consistent across campuses.

Posted In: From AFL-CIO, Allied Approaches