The votes have been submitted by Northwestern players voting on whether or not to form an official players union. The results of the vote will not be released until an appeal by Northwestern University is ruled on by the National Labor Relations Board. The waiting game has officially begun, with the fate of the players union in Evanston hanging in the balance.
The vote among football players was conducted in an on-campus hall by the football stadium. The ballot boxes were sealed once all of the votes had been submitted and now it is a question of when these votes will be counted and the outcome revealed. The results of the vote will not be confirmed and announced until after the NLRB makes a ruling on the appeal presented by Northwestern University. The school claims the ruling made by the regional office of the NLRB recognizing football players as employees of the university should be overturned because the players do not meet the qualifications made standard by the NLRB. If the appeal by the university is successful, the results of the vote by players will have no impact because players would no longer be ruled as employees of the school.
Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald has stated he hopes the players vote no on the union, and there is a thought that could be the result when the votes are tabulated. The university denies any involvement in attempting to persuade players eligible to vote against the union, but documents released by the university do bring to light a concern about a potential division in the locker room among scholarship athletes in the union and non-scholarship players and coaches.
“There is no question but that the presence of a union would add tension in terms of creating an `us’ versus `them’ feeling between the players it would represent and those it would not,” the document said, according to the Associated Press.
It is unknown how long the wait will drag on before knowing the results of this vote. It could be days, weeks or even months. So hang tight. We could be sitting on this for a while.