Over 100 women’s NCAA basketball players start unionization effort

Women’s college basketball players are looking to unionize.

On Friday, the United College Athletes Association (UCAA) announced that more than 100 women’s college basketball athletes joined its unionization campaign.

The women are the largest group of college athletes to formally push for collective bargaining alongside the UCAA with the goal of adding members from other sports.

Their goal is to eventually create divisions among the organization for each college sport to bargain with individual schools separately.

So far, all 100-plus members have signed union authorization cards that allow the UCAA to represent them in collective bargaining negotiations.

This includes 10 out of 13 rostered Oregon State women’s basketball players who filed a petition Friday to be recognized as union members.

“We want one voice,” Oregon State senior Jenna Villa said, according to ESPN.

Organized efforts among college athletes are nothing new.

The College Football Players Association saw Stanford football players come together with plans to file for formal union authorization when a more favorable political climate arose.

Dartmouth and Northwestern have also seen unionization efforts in recent years, using the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board to argue they were private sector employees.

The Oregon State women’s basketball team, however, are the first to try and be recognized as state employees.

They will first attempt to have the school voluntarily recognize them as employees, petitioning the Oregon Employment Relations Board — which regulates the state’s public employee unions — if that doesn’t work.

Villa said the UCAA chose to start in Oregon because the state labor laws are favorable for the cause, including allowing their public employees to unionize.

The UCAA executive director, Andrew Cooper, said the organization would eventually like to move to conference-wide bargaining units, where players are considered employees of their leagues.

Following that, they would move to an agreement that applies to all college athletes.

The UCAA’s advisory board includes both current and former members of professional sports unions such as NWSLPA executive director Meghann Burke and WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike.

Maryland women’s basketball player Oluchi Okananwa, the interim president of the UCAA, said the goal of the organization is to negotiate better pay, academic protections, and safety mandates.

“We deserve a seat at the table, meaningful protections, fair compensation, and a collective bargaining agreement that raises the standard for everyone,” she said.

“This work is bigger than any one season or generation. We are building lasting power for the athletes competing today and those who will come after us.”