The NCAA’s Real March Madness Is Keeping Players From Unionizing

The fight over the student-athletes’ status continues.

It is March and in the sports world that means March Madness and the NCAA Men’s College Basketball Tournament is about ready to start. But the real madness is that National Collegiate Athletic Association members still don’t want to pay their performers, the people who perform on the court or on the field and earn money for the NCAA. The NCAA has a problem with Dartmouth University. NLRB Regional Director Laura Sacks has decided that Dartmouth basketball players are employees of the school and that means that the Dartmouth players can vote to create the first-ever labor union for NCAA athletes.

In September 2023, the 15 members of the Dartmouth men’s basketball team signed a petition in September asking to join Local 560 of the Service Employees International Union. If the players do vote to join a union, it will give the players power. The players would become partners with the school and would collectively bargain with Dartmouth officials for salary and working conditions which would include practice hours and travel. Dartmouth associate vice president for communications Diana Lawrence put out a press release which explained that the school would be seeking a review of Sacks' decision. Needless to say, the school is not pleased with Sacks. “Dartmouth has a long and proud history of productive relationships with unions on campus, always negotiates in good faith when appropriate, and respects the rights of workers to unionize. However, we do not believe these students are employees," said Lawrence in the statement. The Sacks decision probably has infuriated college poohbahs who through the NCAA President Charlie Baker has been pleading with Congress to help the sports organization to keep the status quo. Keep the athletes in the student-athlete category and make sure they don’t get paid from the schools and make sure they are not employees.

 

 

Women Pioneers of American Television

Wednesday, March 06
6:30pm - 7:30pm

 

Main Library

Backroom, Adult Zoom

AGE GROUP: | Adult |

EVENT TYPE: | Virtual | Movies/Film | Instructional (includes lectures and workshops) |

TAGS: | |

The early days of TV was dominated by men on the small screen but a surprising number of women left a mark. Betty White was the last woman standing of a group that included Gertrude Berg, Hazel Scott, Dagmar, Faye Emerson, Martha Rountree, and Lucille Ball. Attend in person or online.

The early days of TV was dominated by men on the small screen but a surprising number of women (unusual for its time, the late 1940s and early 1950s) left a mark.

 

 

Olympians Should Be Seen And Not Heard

Watch your mouth!

Dear boys and girls who plan to play in this summer’s Paris Olympics, here is a heads up. The president of the Olympic movement is reminding you that good little Olympic athletes should be seen and never heard. Well, you can be heard but not during the opening and closing ceremonies, the medal ceremonies, during competition and during your stay in the Olympic Village.  Athletes have to refrain from attacking individuals, organizations or countries. The International Olympic Committee and its President Thomas Bach said failure to comply with the rules may result in disciplinary action. It is time for Bach to be reminded of some Olympics history, particularly the Olympics history of his homeland Germany. In 1936, Adolf Hitler attempted to use the Berlin Games for propaganda purposes and legitimize his rule of the country. In 1972, there was the Munich Massacre where members of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s offshoot Black September killed 11 Israelis.

The Olympic movement threw South Africa out in 1964 because of apartheid. There was the African countries boycott of the 1976 Montréal Games. American President Jimmy Carter ordered a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Summer Games because the Soviet Union refused to leave Afghanistan. A good number of western countries followed Carter’s lead. The Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact countries did not go to the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games. Bach has to remember the 1968 Mexico City podium protest by two Americans Thommie Smith and John Carlos along with Australian Peter Norman protesting among other things poverty both in the United States and around the world. Bach should be reminded that he took partial credit when North Korea and South Korea fielded a combined team in the 2018 South Korea Winter Olympics. The Olympics event is political. Countries use the Olympics for various reasons including raising their global profiles.

 1922 Talk for International Women's Month

 

Goodell Has A Lot Of Political Work To Do

Goodell, the lobbyist has to get money out of politicians

The on-field action is done but the business of the National Football League is a 366 days a year event in leap years. Commissioner Roger Goodell’s main job is to carry out the agendas of 31 different owners and the Green Bay Packers Board of Directors and that means Goodell has to put on his lobbyist and negotiator clothes and get new stadium deals for various ownership groups including Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Jacksonville, and the Kansas City franchises. Goodell has endorsed a Chicago Bears’ ownership plan to build a stadium in Soldier Field’s south parking lot. He is also backing a Bears’ ownership quest to build a stadium on property the Bears ownership has in Arlington Heights, Illinois. The problem in Arlington Heights? Taxes. Bears’ ownership does not like the tax bill on the parcel it owns.

Goodell will probably be advocating the passage of a Jackson County, Missouri referendum on April 2^nd which, if passed, will funnel money into the reconstruction of the Kansas City football stadium and also provide money for a Major League Baseball stadium for MLB’s Royals’ ownership perhaps in downtown Kansas City. Goodell has also endorsed a plan for a new or rebuilt Jacksonville football venue. In Cincinnati, the lease between the Bengals; ownership group and the local municipality is done in 2026 so the clock is ticking in terms of getting a deal done and the Browns’ ownership’s lease with the local municipality is finished in 2028. The problem Goodell has is getting leverage for all the owners except Chicago’s McCaskey family because there are no municipal governments in non-NFL municipalities that have a stadium plan for right now. The NFL vacated Oakland, St. Louis and San Diego because there were alternatives. That is not the case today.

Black History Month Talk

February 15 talk It includes a theory that Jackie Robinson should have beene in the Major Leagues in 1846