North American Soccer League v. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
613 F.2d 1379 (1980)
A players' association petitioned the NLRB for a single, league-wide bargaining unit covering players from the North American Soccer League's (plaintiff's) U.S. member clubs, and the NLRB found the league and its clubs were joint employers given the league's significant control over player selection, retention, termination, and contract approval through its Commissioner, who could disapprove contracts and had binding arbitration authority over player-club disputes. The league appealed the NLRB's joint-employer and single-unit determinations.
Whether a joint-employment relationship exists when an employer exercises, or potentially exercises, control over another party's labor relations such that a designated collective-bargaining unit is appropriate.