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Student Athletes Deserve Pay For Their Play

From: Dick Meister
Length: 00:03:49

So-called student athletes should be paid for their work in bringing billions of dollars to the nation's colleges and universities. Read the full description.

Dick_meister_small The so-called studnt athletes, who are among our most highly exploited workers, deserve to be paid and otherwise compensated for their play that genrates billions of dollars in TV money and other revenues for their colleges and universities. Most don't even manage to graduate, and only a relative few go on to play in the professional leagues that former college stars big bucks.

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Piece Description

The so-called studnt athletes, who are among our most highly exploited workers, deserve to be paid and otherwise compensated for their play that genrates billions of dollars in TV money and other revenues for their colleges and universities. Most don't even manage to graduate, and only a relative few go on to play in the professional leagues that former college stars big bucks.

Broadcast History

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Transcript

Let me talk a little about a group of highly exploited workers who we usually ignore in our concern for ordinary working people. I mean so-called student athletes, as they're called by the colleges and universities that employ them.

That's right, employ them – employ them to play games that bring in billions of dollars in television money and other revenue to their schools and their highly-paid coaches.

The schools really make out at this time of the year, playing in football bowl games that bring schools millions of dollars from radio and television networks that use the games to peddle beer and other merchandise at great profit.

The athletic factories, aka schools, are like any other factories. They pay lots to those who manage their enterprises – coaches, in their case – and as little as possible to those who do the work – the student athletes, of course.

Major schools pay the...
Read the full transcript

Intro and Outro

INTRO:

Commentator Dick Meister says we're ignoring the plight of some of our most badly treated workers.

OUTRO:

Dick Meister is a long-time labor journalist.