UFC Sends Letter To Fighters Warning Them Of ‘Pathetic’ Union Attempts

By BJPENN.COM News - August 11, 2015

Dana Fertittas

Frank Fertitta, Dana White, Lorenzo Fertitta

The UFC has issued a letter to all of their contracted fighters regarding the Teamsters and The Culinary Workers Union trying to ‘organize fighters’.

Some of you might think a fighters union would be a good thing, but the UFC sent this letter out to warn fighters about possible alternative motives.

The Culinary Workers Union has been behind several plots to hurt the UFC and the sport of MMA. It all comes back to them trying, and failing, to unionize Station Casinos, which are owned by the Fertittas.

Check out the letter:

Dear Athletes,

You may see media reports in the days ahead about some union tactics that are both shameful and pathetic. The Culinary Workers Union Local 226 in Las Vegas and the Las Vegas Teamsters union allegedly have devised a plan to “organize MMA fighters.” The reason this is pathetic is that the Culinary Union is the exact same union that has spent years, as well as the money from its dues-paying members, to do everything imaginable to keep MMA out of New York and to run a campaign telling UFC fans, sponsors and government officials to not support the professional sport that all of you compete in. They even created a website called “Unfitforchildren.org” to try and hurt the UFC, the sport of MMA and the very same athletes that they suddenly claim to care so much about.

Now, they are making more accusations against the UFC and they apparently believe that if MMA athletes would support the unions’ organizing efforts, sign union cards and agree to pay dues to the union every month, then the world of MMA would be a better place. Not only is such a mission misguided, it hides the unions’ only real interest, which is organizing workers at Station Casinos in Las Vegas, NV. They hope that by applying pressure to the UFC that somehow it will increase their chances in Las Vegas. Certainly, we will admit that their old tactics haven’t been working because they have been harassing Station Casinos, its employees and customers for over 15 years and they have yet to organize even one Station Casinos’ property.

There is a lot more that we could go into about these unions and their tactics, but for the time being, I’ll just point out the most obvious and illogical fact about this latest tactic. As a matter of law, unions can only organize employees, and as we all know, MMA athletes are independent contractors—not employees. You would think that union leaders would have done that little bit of research before issuing a press release.

On behalf of everyone in the UFC, please know that we consider all of you to be amazing athletes and we are proud to have created a worldwide platform where you can compete in the sport you love and be compensated for it. For that reason, we will not sit by and let a group that has publicly demonstrated that it wants to destroy our beloved sport try to do so by lying to you. We will fight them with the truth and we will win.

[source: mixedmartialarts.com]

 

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