This is the rest of the excerpt that I posted on the Confidential Board.
Why would the Dartmouth players drop their unionization attempt now?
The short answer is because of politics.
For the last four years, the National Labor Relations Board has been controlled by Democrats, with the board’s general counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, particularly sympathetic to the classification status of college athletes. But with Donald Trump returning to the White House this month, armed with GOP majorities in the House and Senate, a new NLRB general counsel will replace Abruzzo. Because the Senate voted against holding reconfirmation hearings for NLRB Chair Lauren McFerran, Trump will also have a Republican majority on the NLRB.
You know who generally isn’t very sympathetic to the rights of organized labor, especially when it comes to expanding who can and cannot join a union? Republicans. The Dartmouth team is betting that it is better to wait until Democrats control the NLRB again, because losing risks establishing precedent that could hurt future unionization efforts.
