Midnight Mania! Leslie Smith’s Labor Complaint Thrown Out by NLRB

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Leslie Smith’s labor complaint, which had initially been greenlighted by Region 4 where she filed it, was thrown out on September 19,…

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Leslie Smith’s labor complaint, which had initially been greenlighted by Region 4 where she filed it, was thrown out on September 19, 2018, by the central office in Washington, D.C. Her lawyer, Lucas Middlebrook, says he has never seen a reversal like this. Via MMAJunkie.com:

“Unlike Region 4, which judged this on its merits and according to the law, D.C.’s decision was nothing but the result of a political stranglehold,” Middlebrook said.

Leslie’s claim came when the UFC paid her both show and win money to not fight the last bout of her contract, after her opponent Aspen Ladd missed weight. Smith, who was on a 3-fight win streak in the women’s bantamweight division and ranked 9th in the UFC, had been attempting to organize fighters to sign union cards with Project Spearhead; if 30% of the UFC roster signed the confidential cards, it would trigger an NLRB review to determine whether UFC fighters should be employees (who are then able to unionize) or independent contractors, as the UFC currently classifies them.

It is illegal to punish workers for attempting to unionize, which is exactly what Smith claimed happened. The NLRB in Region 4 had determined her claim had enough merit to review, which, importantly, would have involved determining whether UFC fighters are misclassified by the UFC and should be considered employees, with all protections and benefits employees enjoy. This review was exactly what Leslie was after, and exactly what the UFC did not want. Smith says that since the UFC released her, fighters have slowed on signing the Project Spearhead cards, wary of similar retribution.

Project Spearhead lawyer Lucas Middlebrook said he understood the decision was unlikely to go his way, describing a July 26 meeting in which it was obvious that he was fighting against the current. He said Trump-appointed NLRB head Peter Robb even confirmed the unprecedented nature of the reversal.

“The meeting lasted about two hours, and it was obvious from the tenor of the meeting which way they were leaning, and that was obviously in the UFC’s favor,” Middlebrook said. “And I asked the general counsel, ‘Why are we even here? Why does D.C. have this case?’ Region 4 issued a merit determination, then D.C. says (Washington) needs to see the case? In all my years practicing, I’ve never seen that happen. And you know what Peter Robb said in response to that? ‘I haven’t either.’”

The most explosive allegation Middlebrook made was that it was UFC president Dana White’s personal relationship with Donald Trump that played a direct role in the NLRB’s dismissal.

“Three days after I went to NLRB in D.C., Dana was in the oval office taking pictures with Mr. Trump and reportedly had a three-hour dinner meeting,” Middlebrook said.

“Now, isn’t that convenient for the UFC? Their entire business model hung in the balance if a federal agency said, yes, these fighters are employees,” Middlebrook said.

Insomnia

Daniel Cormier is pissed with USADA and wants them to stop calling him. The sense of injustice must be strong for D.C.

Forrest Griffin only tweets occasionally, but when he does, he comes out with pithy observations like this:

There is no UFC this weekend, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t combat sports events happening

I had forgotten Yoel Romero was supposed to fight Paulo Costa on the card… but now he’s rumored to fight Alexander Gustafsson? I guess higher rewards make people willing to take higher risks.

The Ultimate Fighter is still a thing that is happening in 2018.

Random Land

What a sentence.

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