Suffice it to say, if you aren’t aware of all the downright despicable practices The Culinary Workers Union Local 226 has pulled over the years in regards to the UFC and MMA in general, you’ve probably been living in the dark. Operating under a thinly-veiled “concern” for the conduct of UFC fighters and a need to protect our children from the potty mouth of Dana White, the CU — often backed by one or more anti-women’s violence groups — has been the driving force behind the anti-MMA movement in New York. The fact that their continuous harassment of the UFC and laughable (not to mention libelous) smear campaigns have only hurt the economy of the state they are trying to “protect” is an irony that has apparently been lost on them.
In either case, it appears that the UFC has grown tired of seeing so many websites backed by the CU — websites that, like the CU itself, operate under a false front — popping up over the years, and has launched their own counter-website, TheTruthAboutCulinary226.com. The website aims to both expose the Culinary Union for the dissembling moralists that they truly are in addition to uncovering just how poorly the organization is managing its own member’s funds:
The Culinary Union has targeted Station Casinos because the company refuses to agree to a “card check” process whereby the Culinary Union may become the representative of its employees without being elected as such through a secret ballot election. Rather than simply following the secret ballot election process that U.S. federal law provides, the Culinary Union’s management has instead waged a dishonest campaign to pressure Station Casinos to capitulate to its demands. As part of that campaign, the Culinary Union has been engaging in harassment tactics that target all of the business interests of the Fertittas, including Station Casinos and the UFC.
The Culinary Union has criticized Zuffa for making political contributions of $231,650 in 2012. However, in 2012, UNITE HERE itself spent almost 5 ½ times more than Zuffa on cash disbursements for political activities and lobbying, totaling $1,252,676. Additionally, UNITE HERE paid a total of $1,158,598 to “consultants” in 2011.
TheTruthAboutCulinary226 also cites several lawsuits and complaints that have been filed against local unions including 226 over the years, and wouldn’t you know it, the allegations aimed at many of the CU’s members are far more reprehensible and corrupt than anything they’ve been able to dig up on the UFC thus far. Hypocrisy at it’s finest, Nation. A few examples:
– On October 22, 1992, a Complaint was filed with the United States government against HERE Local 100 and former officers of the local. The Complaint alleged that the local was influenced and controlled by members of organized crime. On October 23, 1992, a Consent Decree was filed, pursuant to which a monitor was appointed to investigate wrongdoing and review the international union trustee’s actions.The trusteeship concluded on August 23, 1994.
– HERE International Union was reported to have “a documented relationship with the Chicago “Outfit” of La Cosa Nostra at the international level, and subject to the influence of the Gambino, Colombo, and Philadelphia La Cosa Nostra families at the local level” in the President’s Commission on Organized Crime presented to President Ronald Reagan in 1986 (emphasis included in original).
– In that same report, HEREIU Local 54, located in Atlantic City, was described as “a classic case study in organized crime and labor racketeering. Several of the officers of this union and its predecessor unions boast convictions for murder, arson, extortion, drugs, bribes, kickbacks, and racketeering…”
– In 2010, a complaint was filed against Local 226 charging the union with using coercive and intimidating tactics with union members at early voting sites around the Las Vegas valley.
You can read up on the history of the Culinary Unions corrupt tactics, the mismanagement of their own funds, and the UFC’s continuous community efforts here.