UFC President Dana White spoke with reporters about UFC's trouble trying to get a fight done in New York, due to union lobbying to keep the state’s mixed martial arts ban in place.
WHITE: You know the Culinary Union has spent, over two million dollars in lobbying, over the last two years. Lobbying what? Over two million dollars of the union workers money. This is money that people are working, giving these idiots dues. They’ve spent over two million dollars lobbying to hurt the UFC.
Two key players keeping the ban in place are, New York’s top law enforcement officer, State Attorney Eric Schneiderman, and Unite Here, a powerful service industry union.
Unite Here has pumped tens of thousands of dollars into Schneiderman’s war chest. It donated $55,000 to his 2010 attorney general race, making it his largest labor contributor, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics. The union pumped another $10,000 into Schneiderman’s campaign in July 2012 despite his not being up for reelection until 2014.
Full Transcript:
WHITE: The Culinary Union is just a pain in the ass. You know the Culinary Union has spent, over two million dollars in lobbying, over the last two years. Lobbying what? Over two million dollars of the union workers money. This is money that people are working, giving these idiots dues. They’ve spent over two million dollars lobbying to hurt the UFC. If I was a union worker I wouldn’t pay my f****** dues.
Q: [Unintelligible]
WHITE: You want to know what union workers say to me when we are in Las Vegas? A lot of times we walk thru the back of the house. They thank me for filling the hotel and especially when times were tough and Vegas was going through that hard time. The UFC was bringing the money in, and those people were making money, working, tips, the list goes on and on. And these idiots two million dollars of their money to battle the UFC. Spend ten million, you morons. Spend twenty million, who gives a s***? I’don’t give a s***. I don’t care how much the union spends, or what they do. They don’t affect me, they don’t hurt me. They are like f****** gnats, that’s what they are like, they are like gnats. They’ve actually gotten to the point where people aren’t taking them serious anymore. When these people get letters from the Culinary Union, they don’t take them serious. Of course the politicians are taking them serious, that’s where that two million dollars is going. Two million dollars is going to the people who are keeping us out of New York.