Donald Trump Fires Student-Athlete Labor Champion Jennifer Abruzzo From NLRB

Donald Trump's firing of NLRB’s Jennifer Abruzzo signals a shift in the student-athlete labor movement

National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, left, answers questions after talking with Michigan workers from two Webasto parts plants at UAW Local 174 in Livonia on Monday, July 29, 2024. The general counsel shared information with the workers about their legal rights to unionize. / Ryan Garza / USA TODAY NETWORK

President Donald Trump fired Jennifer Abruzzo, the National Labor Relations Board's general counsel, on Jan. 28.

Abruzzo was a champion of the student-athlete labor movement, which gained significant traction under the Biden administration. 

In September 2021, mere months into her term as the head attorney for the NLRB and only months after the implementation of NIL, Abruzzo penned a highly influential memo that served as the backbone for subsequent pushes for athlete employment:

“Players at Academic Institutions perform services for institutions in return for compensation and subject to their control.  Thus, the broad language of Section 2(3) of the Act, the policies underlying the NLRA, Board law, and the common law fully support the conclusion that certain Players at Academic Institutions are statutory employees, who have the right to act collectively to improve their terms and conditions of employment.”

Abruzzo recognized many student-athletes as employees and sought to advocate for their interests in the workplace. Under her appointment, Dartmouth men’s basketball became the first collegiate sports team to unionize.

In February 2024, the local NLRB director recognized the players as employees, and the team subsequently voted 13-2 to join the Service Employees International Union.  

Similar efforts to promote student-athlete employment status occurred in an NLRB-led ruling against the University of Southern California, the Pac-12, and the NCAA that, in the words of Abruzzo, “maintained unlawful rules and unlawfully misclassified scholarship basketball and football players as mere ‘student-athletes’ rather than employees entitled to protections under our law.”

That case sits in front of an administrative judge and, until November, looked primed to provide a pivotal moment in athlete employment standards. 

The news of Abruzzo’s firing is more a formality than anything else.

With Donald Trump winning the presidential election, Abruzzo and other democrats holding positions appointed by the executive branch were assured an expeditious trip to the chopping block once the new administration formally took power. 

For college athletes, the ripple effects of this transition happened long before the formal firing.

Dartmouth men’s basketball’s SEIU Local 560 union withdrew its NLRB petition, understanding that an unfriendly labor board would be incoming. It is expected that whoever steps in as the new NLRB general counsel will withdraw the unfair labor practice case against USC. 

However, efforts to recognize athletes as employees do not die with the new administration.

Ongoing litigation in the NCAA v. Johnson case remains, and athletes can find employment status granted to them by the judiciary under the definitions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. 

Massive changes in college athletics remain on the horizon.

Every day, such change appears to become more and more partisan.