On Thursday, two large unions, The Teamsters and The Culinary Workers Union , joined together and issued a statement saying that they will be working to help organize UFC fighters into their own union.

Behind all this is possible ulterior motives. The Culinary Workers Union has been doing battle with the Fertitta brothers for a long time, attempting to unionize the workers at their Station Casinos. They’ve also been involved in keeping MMA illegal in New York, according to White and the Fertittas.

The UFC issued this statement to MMAWeekly about the Culinary Workers Union trying to organize fighters:

“The modern era of the UFC has seen incredible gains in athlete safety and compensation along with the mainstream success of a once marginalized sport. We are proud of this amazing record and consider it extremely duplicitous that the same labor union that has spent years demeaning UFC athletes, denouncing the sport of mixed martial arts, and doing everything possible to keep MMA out of New York, is now claiming to care about the interests of athletes in the UFC,” read the statement to MMAWeekly.com.

“Indeed, UFC has spent considerable time and effort defending against the outrageous allegations by this local union about athletes who have chosen to compete in the UFC. This is nothing more than the newest brazen tactic in a failing effort to organize culinary workers at a Las Vegas casino. It is shameful that local union leaders would try to use UFC athletes as pawns to advance this hidden agenda.

“We are proud of our relationship with all athletes who have entered into contracts with the UFC, and we are proud to produce a product that is enjoyed by millions of fans around the world.”

ALL ACCESS — Go Inside BJ Penn’s UFC Hall-Of-Fame Induction
[ooyala code=”w2aHFwdjr22EEGhgac8QJfRqzUOarSwy” player_id=”bd214e34cfad476984102de4bf5e8da2″ width=“640″ height=“360″ auto=”true”]