The five-member regulatory board that will ultimately decide if Northwestern University football players can unionize has itself been in the middle of a firestorm.
The very makeup of the National Labor Relations Board has been challenged in a case now before the Supreme Court. And Republicans contend the agency has being overly friendly to organized labor.
Northwestern said Friday that it would appeal to the full NLRB a regional director’s ruling that full scholarship players can be considered employees and thus have the right to form a union.
The appeal is due April 9, with the response from the players April 16. There’s no deadline for the full board to respond.
The current NLRB has a 3-2 Democratic majority. All five members were appointed by President Barack Obama.