To Unionize Or Not? That Is The Question!

As of this moment in time, professional wrestlers working for WWE are hired as “independent contractors.”  They, along with their employer, sign an agreement on a limited time of employment and during that time their services will be used as frequently/infrequently as agreed upon.  The contractor will then be compensated for his/her time, as well as any other agreed upon royalties, and is not officially tied down to the position once the contract has run its course.  A prominent role as to why a business would hire independent contractors is the fact that the businesses themselves do not have to worry about extra expenses like social security taxes and medical insurance.

Back in the mid 1980s, a wrestler by the name of Jesse Ventura, who eventually would become Governor of the state of Minnesota, had an idea that professional wrestlers should unionize to help maximize their opportunities for work.

• Dictionary.com’s definition of a Union is “a number of persons, states, etc., joined or associated together for some common purpose; an organization of workers;”

Ventura has accused WWE owner, Vince McMahon, of being cheap and using the idea of “independent contractors” improperly.  I would have to agree with Mr. Ventura on this case.  As an artist struggling to find steady work in my industry, I know that as an independent contractor, it’s within my right to hold multiple positions with multiple companies at the same time.  My clientele contact me (or I look for work myself) whenever they need something done, and what I make is based on the duration and size of the project through negotiation.  What Mr. McMahon does is NOT independent contracting.  The professional wrestlers under contract with WWE are told when, where, and who to wrestle against on a daily basis.  When their contracts run out, they are almost instantly resigned to a new contract.  Just like myself, they get no real benefits (medical, 401k, etc.), and have to keep track of their own finances so that during tax time when Uncle Sam comes calling, they’ll have to pay out of their own pocket.  The only thing that differs between my situation and the wrestler’s, they can ONLY work for WWE when they’re under contract, which is NOT a normal idea of an independent contractor, especially if you look at the way the indy circuit works or how the territory system used to work.

If you’re not familiar with the independent (indy) circuit, quite simply, each wrestler acts as a “independent contractor” and can come and go as they please when there is a need for their services.  For example, Wrestler X might wrestle one night in Los Angeles, CA on a Friday night for one promoter, and then two days later Wrestler X would work for a different promoter in Phoenix, AZ.  He can have a working relationship with multiple promotions and promoters, make money from all of them, and have work almost every weekend, all the while still holding a normal day job if necessary.  This is slightly different from the territory system back before WWF killed the system back in the 1980s.  When the territory system was in place, a promoter had a specific region in which he could have shows (i.e. California, Pacific Northwest, etc.) and would NOT compete directly in the same market against another promoter.  In turn, they would loan out wrestlers to other territories as a way to keep things fresh and also to promote the idea of one World Champion through a governing body called the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA).

So where does the idea of a union come in?  Well, there are pros and cons to any union.  Unions work to help so that the employer does not take advantage of its members, but in the same right, unions protect people who may not deserve certain wages or bonuses due to lack of production.  In the scheme of professional wrestling, a union would allow the wrestlers opportunities to band together so that they are not tied down to one company, and can maximize their profit opportunities.  However, the union could cause the entire business to crumble.

Imagine this scenario, the wrestlers are unionized and are now acting as legitimate “independent contractors,” and now they can work anywhere they please anytime they want.  Now imagine the biggest name in the business currently, John Cena.  He could fetch top dollar from any company he would like to sign for, and could appear on both WWE and TNA promotions so long as he could negotiate well to make all of the required TV dates.  Now imagine the next biggest names in wrestling’s top 10.  What happens if they sign contracts similar?  All of a sudden, we have two companies with the same guys!  There’s no real variety in the product. All of a sudden, middle to lower tier wrestlers do not have as many options in major companies that can pay top dollar.  Those wrestlers may be pushed down to wrestling un-televised house shows for those companies, or working for local promotions that cannot pay as much.  That doesn’t seem like a good thing for the business to me.  The only good thing that could come from the wrestlers acting as legit independent contractors is the idea that they can work according to their OWN schedule.

When it comes down to it, I think that main thing that Mr. Ventura was getting at is the idea that the wrestlers should either be called “employees” giving them better compensation for what they do and be able to have other things taken care of for them, like social security and medical benefits, or that they should have the able to test the waters and choose how, when, where, and the duration of their place of employment as contractors.  The wrestlers are being held in limbo so to speak.  They make great money with WWE, but cannot go elsewhere until their contract expires.

Pro wrestling is NOT “organized sports.”  There is no off season.  Having a model like McMahon does, is more complementary to Major League Baseball than wrestling.  It would be very odd to see Alex Rodriguez play one night for the Yankees and the next night for Red Sox.  Until the wrestlers stand up for their rights, the model will stay the same, which may not be so bad in the grand picture.  Change is scary and could cause more problems than solutions.