Former Northwestern players: School is interfering with union process

Northwestern football players are set to vote Friday on whether to form a union, but before they do, a group of Wildcats alumni plan to communicate their belief that the unionization process has been interfered with by school officials.

The group, which calls itself "Game Changers, Collegiate Alumni Athletes for Change," had already scheduled a Thursday press conference to announce "a blueprint for policies and proposals that could enhance the on and off field experiences of scholar-athletes."

Though they have not taken a public stance on the unionization of college athletes, Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com reports that in a letter to Northwestern's board of trustees dated for Thursday, the group asked for "modifications to the governance process to give players a greater voice and a substantive stake in the creation of policies and regulations that impact their interests."

Speaking with CBSSports.com, the group - which includes journalists Rick Telander and Mike Adamle, as well as Kevin Brown - expressed concerned that head coach Pat Fitzgerald appears to have changed his stance on former quarterback Kain Colter.

"We all love our program but we have a problem that this process has been interfered with," Brown, who played for the Wildcats from 1981 to 1985, said.

In January, Fitzgerald tweeted that Colter and "our student-athletes have followed their beliefs with great passion and courage." More recently, it has been reported that players were urged by Fitzgerald to vote against unionization.

"We were very disturbed because it was every sort of classic union busting," Brown said. "We just thought that Northwestern is better than that. This is not a typical labor management dispute."

A spokesperson for Northwestern said that while the school has opposed unionization, it has not violated National Labor Relations Board guidelines.

76 Northwestern players are eligible to vote by secret ballot Friday. If the majority vote in favor forming a union, they will be represented by College Athletes Players Association (CAPA), which was formed by Colter and former UCLA football player Ramogi Huma.