LVRJ: Culinary Union play is despicable
Las Vegas Review-Journal: “The union’s latest play in its desperate, despicable feud with Station Casinos comes with a heavy dose of hypocrisy.”
For 15 years Culinary Workers Union Local 226 has tried and failed in its attempts to unionize the Station group of hotel-casinos in Las Vegas. Although the UFC has nothing to do with culinary workers, and indeed provides union work at arenas across the world and in Nevada, Station Casinos is owned by Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, who are also majority owners of the UFC.
This is enough for the crazy union to create a seemingly endless series of bizarre front organizations, that purport to be well intended citizens groups against MMA or the UFC. Their lone success has been keeping MMA in NY unregulated, so fighters with positive tests for HIV and Hep are fighting each other.
Early this month, Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Teamsters Local 986 sent out a press release saying they want to help fighters improve conditions for themselves and raise standards for the sport and share in the success of the Las Vegas tourism industry by forming a fighter’s union.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal editorialized strongly against the Culinary Union’s transparent efforts.
UFC should knock out phony Culinary organizing bid
The Culinary Local 226, which has worked maliciously for years to hurt the financial interests of UFC fighters, wants those fighters to believe they’ll be better off allowing the union that has sucker-punched them to bargain on their behalf.
The union’s latest play in its desperate, despicable feud with Station Casinos comes with a heavy dose of hypocrisy. The Culinary, along with Teamsters Local 986, announced this month that they intend to organize the fighters of the Las Vegas-based Ultimate Fighting Championship, the world’s most successful mixed martial arts organization, over concerns about how the fighters are being treated. As if anyone could treat them worse than the Culinary has.
UFC owners Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta also control Station Casinos, which the Culinary has failed to unionize because of hostility, harassment and bad-faith tactics. Hoping to make the Fertittas submit to a card-check election, the Culinary began attacking the UFC as well. Its most damaging blow has been a political blockade in New York that has prevented UFC licensure — and denied UFC fighters access to the lucrative New York City market. The Culinary created a website disparaging all UFC fighters, unfitforchildren.org, and petitioned Toys R Us to remove UFC products from its shelves, among other boorish moves.
UFC events on the Strip put big money into Culinary members’ pockets, which turn into Culinary dues used to harm the UFC. But now UFC fighters are supposed to believe that the Culinary is looking out for them?
All this nonsense would stop if the Culinary would agree to secret-ballot elections at Station Casinos properties. That the Culinary won’t says everything about its chances of prevailing.
The Culinary doesn’t give a rip about UFC fighters. And its destructive approach to unionizing hurts all of Las Vegas. It’s past time for the Culinary to tap out.
