What Trump’s Moves Mean for Future of College Sports Labor

President Donald Trump has begun his anticipated shake-up of the National Labor Relations Board, firing general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, who had been in the role since 2021. Trump also ousted Gwynne Wilcox, one of the Democratic members of the national board. The moves will push the agency, which is tasked with protecting employees’ rights, away from the pro-labor bent it had during the Biden Administration. 

Trump’s dismissals will mean a more employer-friendly NLRB board and will strip the agency of a pro-labor general counsel. As a result, the NLRB will no longer be a mechanism by which college athletes can seek employee status and collective bargaining rights—at least as long as Trump is in the White House. 

During the Biden Administration, two NLRB cases, one from Dartmouth men’s basketball players and another regarding USC football and basketball players, were trending in the pro-athlete direction. Dartmouth players had won a regional decision to unionize, which the school was appealing to the agency’s five-member board—but the board at the time was considered labor-friendly. USC was awaiting a ruling from a regional administrative law director, who had heard weeks of in-person testimony on the subject. 

Both of those cases were withdrawn ahead of Trump’s inauguration, however. 

On Monday night, Trump reportedly fired Abruzzo, who oversees which cases the NLRB will pursue on behalf of employees. Abruzzo played a major role in the athlete-as-employee movement: She said on several occasions she believed college athletes should be classified as employees and helped direct efforts for the organization to support a USC case saying football and basketball players had been unlawfully classified as amateurs. Trump will likely replace her with someone who wouldn’t side with athletes in the employment movement. (Classifying college athletes as employees would mean they get all the benefits and protections a private-sector employee receives, from workers’ compensation to the potential to unionize.)

The acting general counsel is now Jessica Rutter, who has worked as Abruzzo’s deputy since November 2024, according to the agency’s website. Rutter will likely be replaced by a Trump appointee.

Wilcox, a sitting member of the NLRB, was also among Trump’s targets. The move is unprecedented and potentially illegal. The National Labor Relations Act states: “Any member of the Board may be removed by the President, upon notice and hearing, for neglect of duty or malfeasance in office, but for no other cause.” (Wilcox told Bloomberg she “will be pursuing all legal avenues to challenge my removal, which violates long-standing Supreme Court precedent.”)

But Wilcox’s firing pushes the national board’s political tilt even further to the right. During the Biden Administration, the NLRB’s board consisted of three Democrats, one Republican, and one vacancy. In the final days of Biden’s presidency, the Senate failed to re-confirm previous board chair Lauren McFerran, one of the Democrats, but added a Republican. Now, with Wilcox’s ouster, there are only two members listed on the NLRB’s website: one Democrat and one Republican. These moves are typical for new administrations as presidents nominate board members who share their political outlook. As such, the NLRB is set for a majority-Republican makeup for Trump’s entire presidency and potentially beyond.

Despite losing a major avenue for getting athletes to be deemed employees, the movement isn’t completely dead in the water. A federal court case called Johnson v. NCAA, which argues that all Division I athletes are employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act, is ongoing. And a growing chorus of players, coaches, and advocates believe that athletes deserve some form of unionization or collective bargaining rights.

The NCAA, meanwhile, is trying to neutralize any change to athletes’ labor status by convincing Congress to pass a federal law that would prohibit athletes from being classified as employees. But even if that succeeds, the plaintiff lawyer for the Johnson case, Paul McDonald, has told Front Office Sports that he would challenge it.