Filed under: UFC, FanHouse Exclusive, News
At the UFC 129 post-fight press conference, UFC president Dana White stated that the real reason MMA had yet to be legalized in New York State was due to a long-standing battle between Station Casinos, which is owned by UFC co-owners Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, and a Nevada-based union.
“It has nothing to do with mixed martial arts the reason that we’re not in New York,” White said. “It has to do with the Culinary Union. The Culinary Union is spending millions of dollars of all these people who pay dues to keep us out of there because my partners, the Fertitta brothers, are the largest non-union gaming company in the country. So these union idiots, all these people work in the Culinary Union, pay their money towards dues, this is what all their money’s being spent towards. Fighting the UFC from coming there and bringing money into the state of New York.”
Culinary Union Local 226, which consists of over 60,000 members working in the food service industry in Nevada, has been trying unsuccessfully for approximately 15 years to unionize almost 14,000 workers at the 18 hotel-casinos operated by Station Casinos.