Without protection Zunis and Utes stick together (5)

I believe the answer is:

unite

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'stick together' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)

'without protection zunis and utes' is the wordplay.
'without protection' says to take the centre (no outside letters).
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'utes' becomes 'te' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
The middle of 'zunis' is 'uni'.
'uni'+'te'='UNITE'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for unite that I've seen before include "Pull together" , "Connect" , "Join together, become one" , "Join together, merge" , "Make one" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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