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The UFC has been pumping cash into US politics for the previous decade, with combined success. By way of lobbying they’ve sought to advertise combined martial arts to lawmakers and argue for more durable legal guidelines on piracy and copyright infringement.
The UFC has additionally used lobbying to concentrate on points relating to international relations, work visas and the Muhammad Ali Enlargement Act (an act that may give MMA fighters the identical sort of management over their careers as boxers at the moment take pleasure in).
Due to federal disclosure types we will see precisely how a lot the UFC is spending on official lobbying missions. We additionally know who they make use of to do that, what branches of presidency they aim and what particular points their lobbyists are centered on.
Current disclosure kind releases present us that within the final two quarters of 2021 the UFC began lobbying work on a selected set of payments: H.R.842 and S.420. These payments are often called the Defending the Proper to Set up Act of 2021. The disclosure types additionally checklist “Employment standing of combined martial artists” as a problem of concern for the UFC.
These two points had been a part of a bundle of points the UFC paid Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP to conduct lobbying work on. The UFC sometimes pays this agency $80,000 1 / 4 for lobbying work. So, to this point, the UFC has disclosed $240,000 value of spending on the Proper to Set up Act of 2021, amongst different points.
H.R.842 was launched into the US Home of Representatives on February 4, 2021 by Robert Scott, a Democrat from Virginia’s third district. In accordance with congress.gov the invoice “expands varied labor protections associated to staff’ rights to prepare and collectively cut price within the office.” An equivalent model of the invoice was launched to the US Senate, below the identify S.420, on February 24 by Patty Murray the senior Senator for Washington (additionally a Democrat).
Among the many particular particulars in these payments are revisions of the official definitions of “worker”, “supervisor” and “employer”. The payments search to broaden the scopes of those phrases.
This may contain including the next modification to The Nationwide Labor Relations Act.
“A person performing any service shall be thought of an worker (besides as offered within the earlier sentence) and never an impartial contractor, until—
“(A) the person is free from management and route in reference to the efficiency of the service, each below the contract for the efficiency of service and actually;
“(B) the service is carried out exterior the standard course of the enterprise of the employer; and
“(C) the person is typically engaged in an independently established commerce, occupation, occupation, or enterprise of the identical nature as that concerned within the service carried out.”.
The payments additionally search to allow labor organizations to encourage their union members to take part in strike actions initiated by different labor organizations. The payments additionally search so as to add protections for union members in opposition to employers who would possibly wish to persecute them for being part of secondary strikes.
The payments additionally search so as to add quite a lot of actions to the US’s checklist of unfair labor practises. Amongst these potential additions are the act of firing somebody as a result of they participated in a strike and makes an attempt to require or coerce staff into attending conferences designed to discourage union membership. The payments additionally desires to make it unlawful for employers to have staff waive their rights to pursue or be a part of a collective or class-action lawsuit.
The total textual content of the payments may be discovered right here (H.R.842, S.420)
H.R.842, the model of the invoice submitted to the Home of Representatives, acquired 213 co-sponsors. 210 of these co-sponsors had been Democrats and three had been Republican. The Republicans who co-sponsored the invoice had been Christoper Smith [NJ-4], Brian Fitzpatrick [PA-1] and Jefferson Van Drew [NJ-2].
The invoice handed by way of the Democrat managed Home of Representatives on March 9, 2021 with a vote of 225 yeas to 206 nays. All however one Democrat voted yea on the invoice. The lone dissenter was Henry Cuellar, from Texas’ twenty eighth district. 5 republicans voted yea on the invoice, they included all of the GOP co-sponsors together with John Katko [NY-24] and the late Don Younger [AK]. Thomas Tiffany [R WI-7] is the one Consultant who didn’t vote on the invoice.
S.420 has but to obtain a vote within the Democrat managed Senate. This invoice at the moment has 46 cosponsors. 44 of these cosponsors are Democrats. Two are Independents. The 2 Unbiased cosponsors are Bernie Sanders [VT] and Angus King [ME].
There are solely three Democratic Senators who haven’t cosponsored the invoice. They’re Kyrsten Sinema [AZ] and Mark Kelly [AZ] and Mark Warner [VI].
If these three Senators agreed to vote together with all the opposite Democrat and Unbiased co-sponsors the invoice would move the Senate on a 50-50 vote, with Vice President Kamala Harris voting yea (because the tiebreaker).
The lobbying disclosure types don’t inform us what aspect of a problem a lobbying consumer falls on. Nevertheless, one can assume that the UFC doesn’t need these three Democratic Senators to affix the ranks of their fellow social gathering members.
If the invoice is handed it will give fighters extra of a shot at being acknowledged as staff throughout the UFC (as an alternative of impartial contractors). When somebody has worker standing within the US they develop into entitled to quite a lot of situations below regulation. These situations embrace parental depart, redundancy pay, and safety in opposition to discrimination, harassment, unsafe work environments and unfair dismissal.
The road “Employment standing of combined martial artists” within the UFC’s lobbying disclosure types would possibly imply that UFC’s lobbyists are speaking to politicians about excluding MMA fighters from the sort of advantages talked about above. If UFC fighters stay ‘impartial contractors’ within the eyes of Federal Regulation after the Senate invoice passes, fighters will nonetheless be left with out the essential rights all staff are entitled to in america.
Of their earlier disclosure types it reveals that the UFC had directed their longtime lobbyist William Moschella to concentrate on the US Home of Representatives. His focus there didn’t forestall the invoice passing by way of the Home. The newest disclosure kind reveals that Moschella is solely focusing on the Senate on the UFC’s behalf now.
If a US citizen needs to contact their US Senator for any motive (together with requesting they present help for or in opposition to a selected invoice) they’ll use the ‘Contacting U.S. Senators’ tool on senate.gov.
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