Last week, the NLRB poured cold water all over the “let’s have college football players unionize!” movement that had begun at Northwestern. The regional director in Chicago had given the green light to a vote to certify the Steelworkers as the representative of the players, but the full NLRB decided not to assert jurisdiction. Thus, the movement won’t get the boost that many social justice warrior types had longed for.

Nevertheless, as I argue in my latest Forbes article, the players are still free to form a union. They can do so the old-fashioned (pre-NLRA) way, which is to say, without the benefit of government coercion. Voluntary, members-only unions that can’t make the NLRB force the other party to negotiate in good faith and can’t claim to represent anyone who doesn’t join willingly are perfectly legal. They don’t have the force of the feds behind them, but that is just as it should be.