Macedawgg - Cindy O got a point though--
The timing of these articles is suspicious for sure---do your job correctly at all times. . .
And it's ridiculous that a journalist would leave out the documented reason the FTC is doing an investigation to begin with. The Culinary Union asked them to. Doyel's an idiot.
Cindy
Culinary Union Requests Formal Zuffa Investigation By FTC
Posted in Featured, legal, politics, UFC, Zuffa on September 2nd, 2011 by Jose Mendoza
Yesterday, the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission requesting that a formal investigation into whether business practices by Zuffa LLC, the corporate owner of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), violate U.S. antitrust laws.
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(jump ahead a bit)
In addition to these contractual practices, Zuffa has refused to promote mixed martial arts events with rival promotional firms. After Zuffa acquired Strikeforce, UFC president Dana White said the two companies would continue operating as separate entities. ‘Even when we own them, we don’t co-promote’, White said. In 2009, Zuffa’s negotiations with Russian heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko collapsed, in part, because of Zuffa’s refusal to co-promote an event with another firm, M-1 Global.
The issues between the Fertittas, owners of Stations Casinos and Zuffa/UFC, have been well documented as of late. Back in 2008, MMAPayout’s Robert Joyner wrote a piece titled “Labor Politics at the Heart of MMA’s Impasse in New York”, which went on to detail the issues Zuffa has ad with the Culinary Union, claiming it as a big reason why the UFC has not been sanctioned in New York.
According to WCBS, the sole correspondence received by the Committee was from UNITE HERE, the hotel and restaurant workers’ union. The letter cited the American Medical Association’s opposition to the sport as well as the alleged concerns of policeman about teenagers emulating the sport on the streets. The union urged the committee to “fully explore” the “social cost” of sanctioning MMA in New York.
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UNITE HERE is a powerful force in the state with 90,000 members in New York. Last year the union spent $100,000 lobbying the Albany legislature and made more than $130,000 in political contributions to the Democratic and Working Families parties. That financial commitment dwarfs the UFC’s reported $40,000 in donations to New York Democrats.
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The union’s opposition to sanctioning is the result of its failed efforts to unionize the Fertitta’s Station Casinos in Las Vegas. The Culinary Union Local 226, the Las Vegas local of UNITE HERE, is the largest local of the union in the United States and it’s most politically potent. However, it has failed to crack into the locals casino market in the city, one dominated by Station Casinos which is the last major non-union company in Las Vegas.
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The family owned Station Casinos has long been staunchly open shop, but its relations with UNITE HERE took a turn for the worse with the company’s purchase of a union casino in 2000. Station fired 1,000 union workers and required them to reapply for their jobs. Only 150 were rehired according to union officials.
Dana White addressed Zuffa’s concern with the Culinary Union in an interview with MMAWeekly earlier this year:
This is where the rubber meets the road. The Culinary Union has been trying for years to unionize Station Casinos, but thus far, has been thwarted. This is why White believes they are using their vast resources – the Culinary Union boasts approximately 60,000 members – to stop the Fertittas from bringing their mixed martial arts business to New York.
