There are currently multiple efforts underway to organize fighters. The first was the Mixed Martial arts Fighters Association (MMAFA), founded by attorney Robert Maysey in 2009; it has broad goals across the sport at its professional level. The MMAFA is involved in anti-trust legislation against the UFC, and hopes among other goals to expand the Federal Law covering professional boxing, The Muhammad Ali Act, to MMA.
In August the formation of the Professional Fighters Association was announced. It is run by baseball agent Jeff Borris, who works for an agency that represents the Diaz brothers. Borris entered the space without so much as speaking with the MMAFA, which is, frankly, an overt FU. However, Borris has been vocal that he supports their efforts, hope to work with them, and sees their goals as different but compatible.
The MMAFA urged fighters to “politely decline” union solicitation requests from the PFA (or any other agent run effort), via Facebook.
UFC bantamweight Leslie Smith appeared at a PFA press conference, said she would sign an authorization card in support of a fighter union led by the PFA, and reached out to a number of figures in the MMA community urging them to communicate with the organizers. She promised confidentiality to fighters and was aghast when a number of their names appeared on a PFA document that went public.
The episode led her to rethink her stance, not on unionizing, but on who does the unionizing. Via Facebook.
This is an open letter to apologize to all the fighters, trainers and managers that I introduced to Jeff Borris in the capacity of the PFA. I am stepping away from the PFA because our vision and methodology surrounding a fighters’ union are not aligned. I apologize to any of the fighters and their supporters who may have been negatively affected by the actions of Jeff Borris though the PFA. I still believe in the need for, and will continue to work toward, a union for fighters under the UFC banner. Previously I thought we needed help and leadership from a well-established sports agent such as Jeff Borris. I believe strongly now that for a fighter union to succeed it must be the fighters that lead and choose.
In order to assist in the progression of PFA, I made a list of active fighters that I thought would be great candidates to serve on an interim executive board. I spoke to those fighters and solicited insight from several managers on the condition of confidentiality. I shared all the names and information I had compiled with Jeff Borris, because he pledged confidentiality and professed his desire to see the liberation of fighters from restrictive contracts and one-sided negotiations. Most of the fighters to whom I spoke prudently withheld absolute commitment to the union until such time that they felt confident in the union and that the best leadership was in place.I was horrified when I read an article published by a major MMA news outlet that included a list of fighter names – some of whom I had spoken regarding potential involvement in the PFA. The names included people to whom I had promised confidentiality, and those people had neither pledged commitment nor consented to the release of their names. I had also provided this information to Lucas Middlebrook, the labor lawyer involved with the PFA. However, I am confident, based on my opinion of his character as well as through direct discussion with him that he would not betray the trust nor jeopardize the careers of the fighters and their supporters.When I reached out to Jeff Borris to inquire how the names could have been released, I was severely disappointed to hear that he had started creation of a board of agents with whom he was sharing information – including, in my opinion, the information he assured me would be kept confidential.
Jeff might have been doing everything with the best of intentions. However, I cannot work with him anymore given the opinion I have formed regarding his unique perception of the concept of confidentiality and lack of transparency. I have not written this letter to cast a negative light on Jeff Borris. Quite the contrary – I have written this letter because I need to apologize and explain to everyone who trusted me enough to entertain a conversation with me why their names ended up on a publicized list that incorrectly asserted they had committed to the union.
I am deeply passionate about the need for a promotion specific union to bargain for UFC fighters’ health care, negotiating power and revenue shares. At the same time I believe in the MMA Fighters Association’s ability to operate as an umbrella over all MMA promotions, and deal with issues like regulating state commissions and officials, as well as looking out for fighters in all promotions.
I believe we need a union specific to both the UFC and Bellator. In fact, it could be the same union that administers separate CBA’s for each promotion. My vision of this union is a democratic one in which the fighters in the UFC and Bellator will be the ones that lead the organization and decide the issues that affect the fighters. We, as fighters, do not need agents or lawyers making policy decisions on behalf of our union, because as fighters, the labor and product we provide places us in a unique situation to bargain for our due share of leverage and the revenue we are generating. As with any other union composed of professionals, we will hire professionals, such as lawyers or economists – but we will decide who those professionals will be – they will work for us.
I look forward to the next step in this journey, which will be to work closely with other fighters that have 100% committed to the union in order to draft a constitution and bylaws, which will secure control of our union exclusively for fighters, not agents or lawyers. Once we are an established labor organization, and information does not have to be confidential, we shall diligently research and examine potential formation of an advisory board of agents – as these bodies have proved useful to the other major players’ unions in this country. However this will be done transparently and only after receiving democratic approval from the fighters represented by our union.
The next steps will be:
1) Establish an interim executive board of UFC and Bellator fighters;
2) Draft a constitution and bylaws, which will serve as the governing document for our union;
3) Collect authorization cards with the goal of obtaining cards from a minimum of 30% of UFC fighters;
4) Once we have the requisite number of cards – asking the UFC to voluntarily recognize our union, and if it refuses then we will submit the cards to the NLRB;
5) The NLRB will determine if we have presented thenecessary amount of cards to demonstrate showing of interest, and if so will commence the process of organizing an election. In order to be certified, 50% plus 1 of all eligible voting fighters will need to approve unionizing. We would expect the UFC to argue that we are independent contractors as opposed to employees, but we feel strongly that our status as employees entitles us the right to unionize. That issue, if raised by the UFC, will be decided by the NLRB;
6) Once certified we will hold an election amongst the membership to determine the dues structure and to elect a full-term executive board comprised of fighters.
7) The elected executive board will be empowered to construct a negotiating committee, including hiring necessary professionals, to begin negotiations toward our first collective bargaining agreement.
I am excited to make the unionizing of fighters a reality. I want to focus now on making sure when it does happen, the union will be our union – led and chosen solely by fighters.
The episode also led attorney Middlebrook to cut ties with the PFA, calling it a major setback in gaining the trust of fighters.
“I still don’t know who released the information,” said Middlebrook to Marc Raimondi for MMA Fighting. “It troubled me because the one thing that I was advocating for, which was an executive board of fighters, was because you could gain some solidarity and some trust and that simple release — or not keeping that information close to your hip — was a setback and it did exactly the opposite of what I was advocating we should do, which was put fighters in decision-making roles.”
“To have your biggest fighter proponent since the beginning lose faith, [Smith] I just decided it wasn’t the right organization for me to be associated with any longer.”
On Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. a number of fighters will take part in a media call about an effort that promises to redefine the industry. The odds are, it will be about a unionizing effort.
