A New York-based labor law firm is reaching out to UFC fighters to gauge interest in forming a union.

“They’re being terribly exploited,” Daniel Bright of Lichten and Bright told MMAjunkie.

The firm, which often represents city government workers in employment disputes, sent out a letter this past month promising to contact “several hundred” UFC fighters. It said MMA’s legalization in New York and the industry-leader’s sale motivated their efforts.

Bright declined to detail the firm’s plans on the record but said there’s been interest from several fighters and managers. He said the firm plans to arrange an informational meeting if there’s sufficient interest in a union. The letter, obtained by MMAjunkie, includes a confidential response form and promises to alert fighters discreetly of the potential meeting.

The letter also cites the UFC’s claim of a $600 million take this past year and states fighters receive between 5 and 15 percent of revenue on a median purse of between $17,000 and $23,000, figures likely derived from independent reports on the split. The attorneys claim a 50 percent share of revenue – in the ballpark of the splits seen in the NBA and NFL – would lead to an average annual payout of $500,000 for every fighter on the UFC’s roster. It also touts the benefits of unions in other sports, including health insurance, pensions, and the ability to negotiate other terms of employment, which in MMA might relate to drug testing, appeals and grievances filed with the promotion.

The UFC has previously claimed it shares revenue with fighters in the “neighborhood” of other professional sporting leagues. The promotion does not make public its financial information, and fight purses released to state athletic commissions don’t necessarily represent a fighter’s total compensation. But independent reports have claimed the split was between 13.6 and 16.3 percent between 2005 and 2011, when the promotion experienced explosive profit growth on the success of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality show.

As MMAjunkie previously reported, efforts at creating an MMA fighters association have faced a myriad of challenges, mainly convincing fighters with varying pay grades, stature and career longevity to unite for better treatment.

Bright’s firm claims its experience with labor litigation sets it apart from other efforts to unionize.

“We are labor lawyers with a combined 40 years of experience representing unions and people seeking to organize unions,” the letter states. “We are not associated with past efforts to unionize UFC fighters. We believe that legalization in New York, together with the explosive growth in the popularity and revenues of the UFC in recent years, and recent sale of the UFC, present a unique opportunity for the UFC’s athletes to join together and create a union or association that will put them on par with other professional athletes competing in major sports leagues, both financially and in terms of the influence they have over how their sport is run and its athletes are treated.”