AMERICAN LABOUR:

UNIONIZING COLLEGE SPORTS:

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Here is one that many people may not know much about-the situation of athletes in college level sports today. While you may think that athletes are vastly overpaid, the megastars are merely blips on a screen that conceals exploitation as the rule. Here, from the Working Families E-Activist Network is an appeal for help from the underclass of athletes.

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MARCH MADNESS-WHO PAYS THE PRICE ?:

The amount of money in college athletics is astounding.
Did you know CBS pays the NCAA more than $6 billion to air March Madness and that many coaches and administrators enjoy six- and seven-figure salaries? Meanwhile, college athletes are left without many basic protections.

So many high school athletes have a dream: a full-ride college athletic scholarship and the chance to hoist a championship banner. But too often, the reality doesn't live up to the dream.

Athletes who have worked hard to earn a college education often find that a "full-ride scholarship" doesn't fully cover their college expenses, leaving them scrambling to pay for their next meal or, even worse, trying to pay costly medical bills for sports-related injuries. Some even have their scholarships taken away without reason—all while the NCAA, college administrators and coaches cash in on their talent, hard work and dedication.

Tell the NCAA to match athletes' hard work and help them fulfill their dream.

College athletes, just like workers around the world, need to fight for their protections, but they do not currently have the right to form a union. Fortunately, that doesn't mean no one speaks for them. The National College Players Association (NCPA), an organization of 10,000 current and former college athletes, is working to change these injustices. The NCPA already has won significant victories for college athletes nationwide, but it needs your help to do more.

Today we call on you to speak out with the NCPA to help gain more protections for college athletes and make sure they get the education for which they've worked so hard.

Here's your chance to speak out to an industry that treats its workers without the respect that we all should have. Join the NCPA and sign a petition that will go to the NCAA and its top three corporate sponsors: Pontiac (GM), AT&T and Coke.

Let them know that a fraction of the billions of dollars
In solidarity,
AFL-CIO Working Families e-Activist Network

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THE PETITION:

Please go to THIS LINK to send the following petition to the NCAA.

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NCPA Petition:
College athletes generate billion of dollars a year and the NCAA should act immediately to implement policies that will provide these athletes with basic protections. With administrators and coaches enjoying six and seven figure salaries, it is unethical to subject college athletes to unnecessary physical, financial and academic risks.

Therefore, we, the undersigned are calling on the NCAA to adopt rules that will provide the following basic protections to college athletes:

1.Prohibit universities from refusing to renew a scholarship of a player that suffers a permanent injury in his/her sport.
2.Require schools to pay for any medical expenses resulting from sports-related injuries that an athlete would otherwise have to pay.
3.Allow universities to put their multiple year scholarship offers in writing.
4.Allow universities to offer scholarships up to the cost of attendance.