WASHINGTON—U.S. Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Wednesday reintroduced the College Athlete Right to Organize Act (CARO), legislation that affirms college athletes are employees under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). While the SCORE Act, recently introduced in the House, would put the power in the hands of the NCAA and roll back some of the progress and protection college athletes have already won, CARO would ensure college athletes have the right to organize and collectively bargain for fair compensation and better working conditions. U.S. Representative Summer L. Lee (D-Pa.-12) introduced companion legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives.

 

“The multibillion-dollar college sports industry would not exist without the labor of college athletes. Between grueling two-a-day practices, cross country travel, and primetime game days, it’s absurd to claim these athletes are amateurs who doesn’t deserve a seat at the negotiating table,” said Murphy. “While the NCAA is cozying up to the Trump administration to try to protect its profits at the expense of these athletes, our bill would empower them to form unions and negotiate for better revenue-sharing agreements, working conditions, and health and safety protections.”

 

“Fair pay and the right to unionize are the bare minimum universities and the NCAA should offer the college athletes that make them billions of dollars each year. Our bill protects the students powering this industry and gives them the rights they deserve as workers,” said Warren.

 

“Pittsburgh is and always will be a union town—and our college athletes deserve the same rights as any other worker who generates revenue through their labor,” said Lee. “From early morning workouts to grueling travel schedules, these athletes put their bodies and futures on the line for their schools while bringing in millions for athletic departments and universities. Yet the NCAA continues to deny them the fundamental right to organize and fight for fair treatment. That’s why I’m proud to partner with Senator Murphy on the College Athlete Right to Organize Act—to ensure that student athletes from Pitt, Duquesne, and CMU to my own alma mater Penn State can stand together, form a union, and demand the dignity, protections, and compensation they’ve long been denied.”

 

The legislation is endorsed by the major professional players associations including the Major League Baseball Players Association, Major League Soccer Players Association, National Basketball Players Association, National Football League Players Association, National Hockey League Players Association, and United Soccer League Players Association. AFL-CIO, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, American Federation of Teachers, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and United Steelworkers (USW) also endorsed the bill.

 

"Collective bargaining has immeasurably benefitted the athletes we represent and professional sports as a whole. Our members enjoy elevated health and safety standards, medical benefits, more equitable compensation, and other rights both on and off the field. Leagues and teams can negotiate roster construction, roster stability, and other competitive regulations. And fans receive the most compelling entertainment product in the world. The same result is achievable at the collegiate level, and we applaud Sen. Murphy for his continued efforts to ensure the option to organize and collectively bargain is safeguarded,” said the Major League Baseball Players Association, Major League Soccer Players Association, National Basketball Players Association, National Football League Players Association, and National Hockey League Players Association.

 

“The USW applauds Sen. Chris Murphy’s efforts to protect college athletes. The NCAA is a massive business kept afloat by more than half a million players in the United States. Our union has advocated on behalf athletes for more than 60 years, and we’re proud to once again back common-sense measures like the College Athletes Right to Organize Act that ensure college athletes receive the fair compensation, just treatment and safe workplaces all workers deserve,” said USW International President David McCall.

With Division I college football programs raking in hundreds of millions a year and paying their coaches in the tens of millions, it’s unconscionable and unacceptable that the workers who create that immense value are barred from bargaining over safety, compensation, and schedules. “Student-athletes” is a legal fiction used to justify rampant exploitation of disproportionately Black and brown workers. Every worker who puts in a physically and mentally grueling day of work should have the right to advocate for their collective interests. We should not have sectors of our economy, whether they are hidden from view, or live in prime time, where workers lack basic rights. The College Athlete Right to Organize Act recognizes the plain reality that the NCAA and its supplicants would prefer to cover-up and deny. The Senate should pass it swiftly,” said Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation for Teachers.

 

U.S. Representatives Emanuel Cleaver, II (D-Mo.-5), Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.-10), Hank Johnson (D-Ga.-4), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.-14), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.-5), Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.-3), Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.-13), and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.-12) co-sponsored the legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives.

 

Murphy also reintroduced the College Athlete Economic Freedom Act, legislation that would establish an unrestricted federal right for college athletes to market their Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL).