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Willa Bepayed is a standout attacker and a Senior on State Tech’s volleyball team. Willa read about Kan Doit, the Southeastern quarterback who’s leading the unionization drive before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Like Kan, Willa Bepayed and her teammates also routinely spend 40 to 50 hours a week on volleyball – a full-time job. She also contends that her commitment discouraged her from entering State Tech’s pre-med program. Can Willa Bepayed and her teammates form their own union and bargain collectively? If so, do they risk encountering negative consequences if they are permitted to unionize?

Not likely to unionize, in Texas. The NLRB decision is limited to private universities as public institutions are governed by state labor laws. And, given that 24 states, including most of the South, are right-to-work jurisdictions, the vast majority of major college football teams could not unionize as Southeastern may.


Continue Reading Gimme a U-N-I-O-N!

Whizzle Blour, a professor of surgery at University Medical School, complained to his supervisor that trauma residents at University Hospital were treating and operating on patients without an attending physician’s supervision in violation of Medicare and Medicaid law.  After agreeing to settle those federal claims, University Hospital stripped Whizzle of his faculty chair position claiming he was a poor administrator. Later he was fired. He filed a whistleblower suit alleging his demotion was in retaliation for reporting the federal law violations. Will Whizzle Blour prevail?

No. Whizzle Blour failed to prove all the required elements for retaliation under the Texas Whistleblower Act (TWA). Reporting the Medicare and Medicaid violations to his supervisor did not satisfy the TWA because the supervisor was not qualified as “an appropriate law enforcement entity.”


Continue Reading Whistleblowers, Do Tell?