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In the wake of the Leslie Smith release, people are jumping onboard the union train. I am a lawyer in NYC. I am not a labor attorney or an employment attorney, but I represent restaurants and small businesses (both in litigation and other issues) and I see the effect of the proliferation of unions and the allegedly “pro-worker” laws and regulations they push.
The union is a product of the Gilded Era’s excesses, with workers living in tenements and ownership living like aristocrats, which violates the American sense of humble work and fair play. However, the compare the UFC to professional sports teams is absurd. Sports teams are tethered to cities, have ground leases on billion-dollar stadiums, and have a massive entrenchment both in their local market and in the public eye at large. There are several teams in baseball (Yankees) and football (Cowboys) that are worth as much, if not more, than the UFC, even if you use the absurdly inflated 4.2B price WME foolishly paid in 2016.
The effect of a union on a sport with this little infrastructure and this fragile a profit margin would be a disaster. Not only would fighters have greater power to hold out, but the designation of employee versus independent contractor would expose the UFC to a countless amount of regulation, the NLRB, and various local bodies, all of which would now regulate and micromanage this ultimately-niche “sport.” The result would be the demise of American MMA.
A lot of people (especially on the left) believe businesses are a golden goose to be milked for aid to the workers. They forget that business people are not slaves, who take the risks, invest their effort and money, and place their estate in danger solely for the benefit of those they might employ. We should have learned this during the AutoIndustry bailout of 2008: industry that exists for the benefit of its workers, and not its management, ownership, or stockholders, dies. The golden goose died in Aesop’s Tales, and so did the eggs.
I do believe the UFC teeters on being predatory. I do believe they would be wise to offer amelioration. But Leslie Smith is a traitor. They paid for her cancer treatment last year, if I recall. The paid her well above her market, and she, as an independent contractor, rallied fighters against them.
Appreciate this: if Smith had her way, the UFC would be powerless to fire or not extend “employee” fighters like her. Every release, firing, or promotion of one fighter over another would bring in Court and Agency scrutiny. The UFC would be treated like a utility. Is this what you want? Fighting is a jungle by design. Do not seek to turn it into the NFL, because you will turn into rubble first.
The union is a product of the Gilded Era’s excesses, with workers living in tenements and ownership living like aristocrats, which violates the American sense of humble work and fair play. However, the compare the UFC to professional sports teams is absurd. Sports teams are tethered to cities, have ground leases on billion-dollar stadiums, and have a massive entrenchment both in their local market and in the public eye at large. There are several teams in baseball (Yankees) and football (Cowboys) that are worth as much, if not more, than the UFC, even if you use the absurdly inflated 4.2B price WME foolishly paid in 2016.
The effect of a union on a sport with this little infrastructure and this fragile a profit margin would be a disaster. Not only would fighters have greater power to hold out, but the designation of employee versus independent contractor would expose the UFC to a countless amount of regulation, the NLRB, and various local bodies, all of which would now regulate and micromanage this ultimately-niche “sport.” The result would be the demise of American MMA.
A lot of people (especially on the left) believe businesses are a golden goose to be milked for aid to the workers. They forget that business people are not slaves, who take the risks, invest their effort and money, and place their estate in danger solely for the benefit of those they might employ. We should have learned this during the AutoIndustry bailout of 2008: industry that exists for the benefit of its workers, and not its management, ownership, or stockholders, dies. The golden goose died in Aesop’s Tales, and so did the eggs.
I do believe the UFC teeters on being predatory. I do believe they would be wise to offer amelioration. But Leslie Smith is a traitor. They paid for her cancer treatment last year, if I recall. The paid her well above her market, and she, as an independent contractor, rallied fighters against them.
Appreciate this: if Smith had her way, the UFC would be powerless to fire or not extend “employee” fighters like her. Every release, firing, or promotion of one fighter over another would bring in Court and Agency scrutiny. The UFC would be treated like a utility. Is this what you want? Fighting is a jungle by design. Do not seek to turn it into the NFL, because you will turn into rubble first.
