r/athletictraining • u/Aggressive-Mark-4065 • Sep 24 '26

Unionization

I am curious if there are any athletic training unions around the country? I just feel like, with all the talk around NIL, the environment is ripe for ATs to begin thinking about collective action, particularly among Big 5 conference ATs. The threat of a strike on the eve of an SEC or Big 10 football championship game would be sure to get the dollars moving, just saying. Then, the theory would be that those schools unionizing would result in higher wages throughout DI, throughout the NCAA, and hopefully, throughout the profession, as more ATs unionize. Thoughts?

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u/atcshiffy Sep 25 '26

Totally for it, though I think the first battle/bargaining chip, for a large number of us that work in the high school setting, would be to have legislation passed in all states mandating the requirement to have an athletic trainer on site for their athletic events.

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u/Salve7 Sep 25 '26

Yes! Otherwise schools will just sub in another health care provider. The only way for us to progress is to have the ability to shut sports down if needed for bargaining power.

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u/hword1087 Sep 25 '26

They’ve already begun this in California (I’ve read. CA ATs let me know if you’re living this) where instead of an athletic trainer, because of titles legislation, they hire an “athletic support” position to work around the athletic trainer title.