Issued March 05, 2024
Cade Haskins and Romeo Myrthil, Dartmouth Men’s Basketball Player Representatives
“Today is a big day for our team. We stuck together all season and won this election. It is self-evident that we, as students, can also be both campus workers and union members. Dartmouth seems to be stuck in the past. It’s time for the age of amateurism to end. We call on the Dartmouth Board of Trustees and President Beilock to live the truth of her own words and cultivate ‘brave spaces’ in which ‘changing one’s mind based on new evidence is a good thing.’ Let’s work together to create a less exploitative business model for college sports. Over the next few months, we will continue to talk to other athletes at Dartmouth and throughout the Ivy League about forming unions and working together to advocate for athletes’ rights and well-being.”
Chris Peck, President, SEIU Local 560, Hanover, New Hampshire
“Our local of more than 500 members has a long and proud history of negotiating fair contracts with Dartmouth, and we are hopeful that President Beilock will continue that tradition with our newest bargaining unit.These players are our members and we welcome them warmly into not only Local 560, but the entire Dartmouth labor coalition. We’re all looking forward to standing in solidarity as they begin to negotiate their historic first contract.”
Mary Kay Henry, International President, SEIU
“These young men will go down as one of the greatest basketball teams in all of history. The Ivy League is where the whole scandalous model of nearly free labor in college sports was born and that is where it is going to die. But this victory is about way more than sports, it’s about people who need a union getting one–whether it’s baristas at Starbucks, airport workers, drivers with Uber and Lyft, or student employees at California State University. This win adds to the momentum of our movement across the country to win unions for all. That’s why, today, SEIU purple is going BIG GREEN.”