Opinion: Plight of the Independent Contractor
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On the latest episode of HBO’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” the British comedian on March 31 metaphorically put World Wrestling Entertainment through a table over its employment practices. Highlighting the struggles of professional wrestlers being classified as independent contractors rather than employees, the 23-three-minute segment took aim at professional wrestling’s astonishingly high expected death rate, its lack of pension and retirement plans and the treatment of wrestlers by the company and WWE CEO Vince McMahon. Oliver’s scathing critique of the company was no-holds-barred, and with the WWE’s biggest show of the year, WrestleMania 35, set to take place on Sunday, he implored fans who were planning to attend the event to make signs and start chants that called out the professional wrestling behemoth on its practices.
As one watches Oliver’s diatribe, however, it’s hard not to notice
the striking similarities between the WWE’s labor practices and another three-letter
sports entertainment company with multi-million-dollar revenue: the
UFC.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship also classifies fighters as independent contractors rather than employees, and like their professional wrestling counterparts, fighters face many of the same issues that arise from that designation. While the UFC covers any medical costs associated with damage in the Octagon and has set up a health insurance policy for fighters under contract, former athletes are left to fend for themselves when it comes to healthcare expenses. Pension plans have been discussed in the organization as far back as May 2011, with UFC President Dana White saying he “would love to do it” if the company could “figure it out.” However, nothing has materialized in the nearly eight years since. Meanwhile, White has publicly criticized a number of fighters for various reasons and taken away title opportunities for a fighter having a “boring” performance or not accepting a bout agreement for a specific date.
Despite the hardships that both professional wrestlers and mixed martial artists face, little headway has been made by either group in negotiating better benefits.
Neither profession has a union in the United States and previous attempts at unionizing have failed miserably. Because MMA and professional wrestling are both individual sports or sports entertainment, many of the more successful athletes are afraid of biting the hand that feeds them, resulting in organizational champions or fan favorites that once supported revolution backtracking on union efforts once their situation improved. The Mixed Martial Arts Athletes Association started in 2016 is a perfect example of this, with names like George St. Pierre, Donald Cerrone, T.J. Dillashaw and Cain Velasquez all calling for change, only to go silent after being given title opportunities or inking new lucrative contracts.
Some efforts to form a union have also been met with perceived company resistance. Jesse Ventura has stated that his attempt at starting a union in the WWE resulted in a phone call from McMahon threatening to fire him, and Leslie Smith filed a claim with the National Labor Relations Board stating that her contract was not renewed by the UFC as retaliation for her attempts to form a fighters union under Project Spearhead -- a claim that was dismissed by the NLRB in October.
There is some hope at change, however. An antitrust lawsuit filed against the UFC by former company athletes is still making its way through the courts and if successful could cause limitations on exclusivity in fighter contracts and ramifications for wrestlers in the WWE. U.S. Representative Markwayne Mullin from Oklahoma has introduced a bill that would expand the Muhammad Ali Act to cover mixed martial arts, which would limit fighter contracts to one year, mandate financial transparency and create an independent ranking system that would grant title fights based on merit alone.
Should all of the aforementioned efforts fail, it’s unlikely that much change will happen for athletes in either company. While both promotions have stepped up their efforts to help contractors stay healthy with the WWE Performance Center and UFC Performance Institutes, the bottom line is that it’s far more financially beneficial to classify workers as independent contractors rather than employees. With the WWE reporting record profits in 2018 and the UFC having an estimated annual interest payment of $137 million as a result of its $4 billion sale, keeping costs down in order to keep profits up will be a high priority for both organizations moving forward. For fighters and wrestlers, that will mean continuing to fend for themselves.
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