(Editor’s note: What follows is Part Two of an article written by Laurie Anthony, Lenny Chiarello, Ben Cohon, Adam Masterson, and Shannon Vafiadou — all of whom were enrolled in in attorney Carla Varriale’s “The MMA Project” sports law class at Columbia University’s School of Continuing Education in New York City. Part Two examines the influence of unions in maintaining the ban on professional Mixed Martial Arts in New York.
Culinary Union No. 226
The Culinary Union represents workers in the hotel, food service and gaming industries in the Las Vegas area. The UFC is owned primarily by Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, who own Stations Casinos, which is the only non-unionized casino on the Las Vegas strip. For more than a decade, the Culinary Union has attempted to unionize the employees of Station Casinos, but has failed to do so every year. The union is seeking a card-check vote, in which each worker’s yay or nay would be public — leaving those who’d prefer to remain non-union vulnerable to intimidation.
The Culinary Union’s most powerful supporter in the state of New York is labor union UNITE HERE. UNITE HERE, whose headquarters is located in New York City, represents 270,000 working people across North America, and members consist of people who work in the hotel, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile, distribution, laundry, transportation, and airport industries. In 2011, the Culinary Union sent a memo to the Hotel Trades Council, who is a member of UNITE HERE and represents 120,000 active and retired members throughout New York State, stating why the MMA is bad for the state of New York (http://www.mmafighting.com/2011/05/11/unite-heres-memo). They state that the exploitative contract provisions the UFC has should not be allowed in mixed martial arts or any professional sports conducted in the State of New York.
The National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence, who is associated with UNITE HERE, lobbied against UFC in New York by sending a letter discussing the video put out by Rampage Jackson, which was not endorsed by the UFC. The Culinary Union wrote letters to Fox telling it to not show fights because of fighters personal history. The UFC responded citing that Stephen assaulted a military official and displayed actions unbecoming of a UFC fighter.
The Culinary Union’s influence on New York’s legislative decision regarding the legalization of professional MMA in the state, can mainly be attributed to its contributions to political campaigns. The Culinary Union was a big supporter for the Obama Administration and made up 60,000 votes in the state of Nevada http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB120060823561898803). The Culinary Union’s total disbursement of funds for political activities and lobbying in 2013 totaled $194,827. From 2008 – 2010, Culinary Union 226 and Local 165 Bartenders Union donated over $105,000 to the Democratic party. It has contributed to New York State Officials such as Bob Reilly, Diane Savino, and George Pataki. Also, New York State Council of Hotel Restaurant Employees & Bartenders, who is affiliated with the Culinary Union, donated a total of $30,000 to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s campaign from 2006 to 2008.
Vagueness of Unconsolidated Law 8905-a and New York Alcoholic Beverage Control Law 106(6-c)
On June 2, 2014 the plaintiffs in the Jones vs. Schneiderman case filed a motion for summary judgment and submitted the Rule 56.1 Statement. The 56.1 statement explained the basis of the motion for summary judgment and challenged the constitutionality of unconsolidated laws 8905-a and New York Alcoholic Beverage Control law 106(6-c) that ban “combative sports”.
Combative sports are defined as “any professional match or exhibition other than boxing, sparring, wrestling, or martial arts wherein the contestants deliver, or are not forbidden by the applicable rules thereof from delivering kicks, punches, or blows of any kind to the body of an opponent of opponents”.
In 1996 New York legislature passed the Senate Bill 7780, which provided for the regulation of MMA by the NY State Athletic Commission, very similar to boxing. State Senator Roy Goodman was the bill’s sponsor. New York Governor George Pataki and U.S. Senator John McCain soon quickly reversed the Senate Bill 7780 in February of 1997 due to their strong opposition and views on Mixed Martial Arts. Since the decision to ban in 1997, MMA has continually received a misrepresented barbaric reputation. In addition, Rule 56.1 Statement clearly presented the overall vagueness of Unconsolidated Law 8905-a and New York Alcoholic Beverage Control Law 106(6-c).
The Rule 56.1 statement proved that people of “ordinary intelligence” cannot understand the Unconsolidated Law 8905-a. Therefore it is unconstitutionally vague. More specifically, one cannot determine whether or not the law states that all Mixed Martial Arts is completely banned or just professional, the difference between amateur and professional, and if professional MMA is banned but exempt organizations have the ability to sanction professional MMA matches.
Even Attorney General Schneiderman was not clear on the statute due to his inability to determine whether or not exempt organizations are able to hold professional MMA events. On more than one occasion, Attorney General Schneiderman has stated that MMA events are permissible if exempt organizations hosted the events. He then quickly changed his tune, later stating that exempt organizations “cannot sanction MMA under 8905-a”. On September 30, 2013 the Order and Opinion of the court found that “a plain reading of 8905- suggests that plaintiffs would be allowed to promote a professional MMA event in New York if the event was sanctioned by one of the exempt organizations”. Exempt organizations included the U.S. Judo Association, U.S. Judo, Inc., U.S. Judo Federation, U.S. Tae Kwon Do Union, North American Sport Karate Association, U.S.A. Karate Foundation, U.S. Karate, Inc., World Karate Association, Professional Karate Association, Karate International, International Kenpo Association, or World Wide Kenpo Association.
An additional point of vagueness in 8905-a occurred after it had been determined permissible for exempt organizations to host MMA matches. There have been multiple theories as to what types of events the exempt organizations can host. Some state officials believed that 8905-a only allows exempt organizations to sanction sports specifically identified in the exempt list. Other officials believe that the exempt organizations are allowed to sanction only “single discipline” martial arts, while others believed that 8905-a specifically prohibited “extreme” and “ultimate” fighting which is different than modern MMA. Nowhere in the text of 8905-a does it limit the types of events an exempt organization may sanction. This has been stated as the reason that The New York State Liquor Authority and New York Department of State have allowed the World Kickboxing Association to sanction kickboxing and Muay Thai events, and the US Judo Association to sanction Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Other events allowed included Shin do Kumate by K-1 and the “GLORY” World Series that involved Muay Thai, Tae Kwon Do and traditional boxing that was directed by Glory. Both are direct competitors of UFC and Zuffa. It is clear that New York State Officials and members of the New York State Athletic Commission are unable to clarify what the exempt organizations are able to host, therefore how can the “ordinary” person determine this?
Passed in 2001, the New York Alcoholic Beverage Control Law 106(6-c), known as the Liquor Law, was intended to “prevent events in bars involving intoxicated customers, which might not fall within 8905-a if the competitors were not paid, but not to prevent stadiums, arenas, or other areas that hold boxing and wrestling matches and have a liquor license from continuing to hold those events”. The law was created in direct response to Upstate New York promoter Jerome Davis, who realized that amateur MMA was not banned under the 8905-a statue and proceeded to promote MMA shows with a few thousand people. Unfortunately, due to the fact that intoxicated patrons would climb into the cage and start fighting, the state decided to pass 106(6-c) to ban venues with liquor licenses from holding such events. Davis felt that the state was trying to unfairly affect his livelihood, and he decided to hold smaller shows in gyms; however these events were sparsely attended.
The New York Alcoholic Beverage Control Law 106(6-c) states that holders of liquor licenses cannot allow an event on their premises in which “contestants deliver or are not forbidden by the applicable rules thereof from delivering kicks, punches or blows of any kinds to the body of an opponent of opponents”, provides exceptions to boxing, sparring, wrestling or martial arts, and gives the New York State Liquor Authority the ability to monitor establishments with liquor licenses and closely track the language of 8905-a when applied to combative events. However 106(6-c) while indistinguishable from 8905-a, has been inconsistently and arbitrarily enforced by New York State Liquor Authority. In addition, nowhere in 106(6-c) does the law specifically state the ban of Mixed Martial Arts or MMA. The SLA has been quoted as saying that they cannot specifically identify what statue bans MMA in New York but it was “informed” that MMA and Mixed Martial Arts is illegal in New York. In addition, the SLA has made decisions on exemptions of amateur events based on previous decisions since no statutory basis is present within law 106(6-c). In addition, the SLA has asserted its basis of exceptions on Unconsolidated Law 8931 that ironically state nothing about the Liquor Law while also previously stating “all amateur boxing events were prohibited by the Liquor Law”. The question that is raised is, how can the New York State Liquor Authority allow amateur combative sports including the Golden Glove boxing championship held at Madison Square Garden and Barclays when they have previously stated that “all amateur boxing events were prohibited by the Liquor Law”? The lack of clarification of New York Alcoholic Beverage Control Law 106(6-c) leaves the statute open for interpretation.
Both the Unconsolidated Law 8905-a and New York Alcoholic Beverage Control Law 106(6-c) are both extremely vague in their current state and therefore the Rule 56.1 Statement proves that both the Unconsolidated laws 8905-a and New York Alcoholic Beverage Control law 106(6-c) are both constitutionally vague and cannot be interpreted by a person of “ordinary intelligence.”
REFERENCES
Krueger, Liz (3, June 2014) Sen. Krueger, Advocates Applaud Passage of “Boss Bill” in Senate Labor Committee, Call for Floor Vote Before End of Session. Retrieved August 1, 2014 from: http://www.nysenate.gov/press-release/sen-krueger-advocates-applaud-passage-boss-bill-senate-labor-committee-call-floor-vote
Krueger, Liz (8, March 2013) Statement: City’s Teen Pregnancy Ad Campaign Pathologically Mean-Spirited. Retrieved August 1, 2014 from: http://www.nysenate.gov/press-release/statement-citys-teen-pregnancy-ad-campaign-pathologically-mean-spirited
Farrell Jr., Herman D (Winter 2014) Reports to the People of the 71st Assembly District. Retrieved August 1, 2014 from: http://assembly.state.ny.us/member_files/071/20131206/index.pdf
La Monica, Mark; New York Newsday, 13 May 2014, “New York State Senate Passes Bill to Legalize MMA, Again,” From: http://www.newsday.com/sports/mixed-martial-arts/new-york-state-senate-passes-bill-to-legalize-mma-again-1.8011627
Seymour, Jude; New York Senate Press Release, 18 June 2014, “Griffo Provides Needed Oversight for Amateur MMA,” From: http://www.nysenate.gov/press-release/griffo-bill-provides-needed-oversight-amateur-mma
Lovett, Kenneth; New York Daily News, 12 January 2010, “Change of Heart for ‘Barbaric’ Sport: Ex-Gov. Pataki Pedal to Metal for Steel-Cage Ultimate Fighting,” From: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/change-heart-barbaric-sport-ex-gov-pataki-pedal-metal-steel-cage-ultimate-fighting-article-1.462243
Lovett, Kenneth; New York Daily News, 7 March 2013, “Gov. Andrew Cuomo Warmed to Mixed Martial Arts,” From: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/change-heart-barbaric-sport-ex-gov-pataki-pedal-metal-steel-cage-ultimate-fighting-article-1.462243
