What Does Strippers United Do?

It took me a week to finally look at the Flaunt Magazine spread I orchestrated. I felt like I was once again stepping into the lineage of sex workers who have fucked their way to the top, even if I didn’t necessarily have to fuck my way into this opportunity. After a year of work on a variety of projects, I’m finally reaching the finish lines. The new strippersunited.org site is up and functional, and it’s rocking the new logo I commissioned (all of this thanks to help from Evan). I also contributed to a new anthology of writings by sex workers titled Whorephobia, spearheaded by the incredibly talented, Lizzie Borden, that is set to be released in 2022. And this is only the tip of the iceberg of projects I’ve worked on this past year. All of this to say that I’m fucking burned out. It’s not easy working multiple jobs and only getting paid for one or two, especially when all of the jobs are similarly high impact. I tend to focus on the more salacious end of the jobs I work, so I thought that for a change, I might bore you all to death (or perhaps intrigue you) with a little rundown about what Strippers United is doing.

Over the past two weeks, SU has been attending COSHCON, which is the National Conference on Worker Safety and Health. We’ve laughed, we’ve cried, we’ve sat at our computers listening in on Zooms detailing what actions workers can take to combat unsafe working conditions. The people attending represented a variety of industries: many came from unions; others represented universities with labor protection programs; we came representing sex workers. It’s not a common occurrence having a conference like this and talking to strippers, but the organizers were excited to have us and to figure out ways to engage with the demographics we represent. Many of the people present worked blue collar jobs in manufacturing or chemical processing and had concerns about overheating in the hot summer months or chemical exposure in old warehouses. SU was bringing complaints about unsanitary or nonfunctional bathrooms, rickety stages, and railings that have broken and caused major injuries. We also brought up the most common barrier strippers have filing complaints with OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration), or any other agency, is the threat of retaliation from employers. Because we are not a unionized workforce and because regulatory agencies aren’t doing much to make sure strip clubs are not permitting a hostile work environment, many strippers have seen or felt the real consequences of taking action. Many strippers, including at least one member of SU, have been wrongfully terminated for requesting basic things like the implementation of Covid-19 safety precautions. While strippers can petition the NLRB (the National Labor Relations Board) to intervene on their behalf and get their jobs back, many have found that upon their return, they are treated worse than when they left. Managers facilitate hostile work environments where they pit dancers against each other for taking any kind of action, even if it’s for little things that everyone wants, like a toilet in the dressing room that flushes.

One thing that SU has grappled with since we began was the issue of how to help dancers take action while insulating them from retaliation. There is no rule that says employers must be hostile to their employees petitioning for a better workplace. In fact, it behoves them to implement changes that make their employees happy. Happy employees = greater retention rates = better productivity overall. When workers share in the profitability of their workplace, they work harder. Additionally, customers want to invest in ethical workplaces, especially right now. But instead, we’re caught up in some zero-sum Reaganomics bullshit where business owners believe they are threatened by a progressive workplace. Union campaigns do not have to be met with union busting strategists coming in and giving bullshit presentations about how workers don’t need a union. The campaigns would not be happening if workers were treated fairly. It is not only risky to run a union campaign, it is expensive in terms of hours and can ultimately cost a person their job. Once the workers agree to unionizing, it can take months, even half a year to reach an agreement with their employers on a contract. For people to be willing to assume that much risk, the need for change must be greater than the risks they incur. Amazon, Lyft, Uber, Starbucks, MOCA and the many other major companies are facing an onslaught of union campaigns, because workers are being mistreated, and they are tired of it. “Union” is a dirty word in the USA, in spite of how integral unions were to cultivating a middle class (that unsurprisingly dissolving as the percentage of unionized industries decreases). Dancers who speak up are often not only fired, but blacklisted. In many states, California included, the strip club industry is more or less a monopoly. In California, the majority of clubs are owned by either Spearmint Rhino or Deja Vu, whether or not the individual clubs assume those names. If you get blacklisted by any of the clubs affiliated with Spearmint Rhino or Deja Vu, you’re blacklisted by that entire network of clubs, and you might find yourself not only prevented from auditioning, but unceremoniously escorted off the premises, as was the case with Antonia Crane, SU founder. Strippers are particularly vulnerable because of the various intersectional identities we occupy. It is an industry largely dominated by PoC; people who may not have a college education; people who may not be US citizens or legal residents; people who may be neurodivergent; people who may have substance dependency issues; young people who may not feel empowered to take action; parents who risk losing custody if they are outed as sex workers; and people who are disregarded by society on very basic levels. The barriers we face just working are monumental. The barriers we face to organize can feel insurmountable.

One example we recently experienced came from a group of strippers looking to unionize in a different state. Each state has different rules and protections for workers looking to organize, and some are more pro-labor than others. Thankfully, their state is relatively supportive of unions, so we at least had that issue under control. The problem arose when the manager caught wind of our activities. This manager has a habit of randomly firing dancers who fall out of his graces. He doesn’t specify why or even that the dancer has been fired, he simply stops scheduling them for shifts and evades their texts. Many dancers weren’t sure if they were currently hired or not, which created confusion around who could participate in the union process. Could recently fired dancers participate? Could dancers who weren’t sure if they were still hired participate, even if they weren’t being permitted to work shifts? The limbo created by that charlatan manager is not an anomaly. Because bosses don’t want to get in trouble for retaliation against organizing campaigns, they will often just ghost and wait out the deadline for workers to file claims. Thankfully, the NLRB and other worker advocacy agencies are privy to these tactics, and have a claims process that allows workers who think they’ve been fired, even if they haven’t explicitly been informed, to file a wrongful termination claim. We advised members of the group caught in this conundrum to file and provided legal counsel to aid in the process.

One of the more exciting things we learned recently came from a meeting with a representative from the EEOC, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Sometimes it’s disheartening dealing with government agencies because we get to see how underfunded and minimally updated they are. The EEOC was founded in 1965, and has not changed much aside from a few additional provisions to protect LGBTQ people from basic discrimination (of course, all that goes out the door when a religious entity is involved, but it’s something). A lot of the stasis comes from our ineffective congress. Many lawmakers propose increasing the scope of power anti discrimination agencies have, and yet they are blocked by obstructionist politicians who defund departments like this because they would love nothing more than to rewind back to a pre Jim Crow era. That said, the EEOC is a great agency more people should be aware of. It protects your rights under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which makes it illegal to discriminate against a person on the basis of race, color, religion, age, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity), or national origin. There is a lot of sex based discrimination at the strip club. For one, the feminized jobs (stripping, bottle service, bartending) tend to require workers to pay to work, whether it be through house fees or mandatory tip-outs. Additionally, the issue of sexual harassment and assault is so ubiquitous, many dancers don’t even complain whenever they experience this sort of violence. The issue of racial/color-based discrimination is just as rampant. Black dancers aren’t even allowed in the door at many clubs, especially if they wear natural hairstyles. Many international dancers are pressured to tip more to work, or to perform full-service. I could go point by point and list out Title VII violations I regularly witness at strip clubs, but you get it: violations abound, so what can one do about it? While many claims must be filed with your legal name and personal information, claims with the EEOC can be filed on your behalf by a third party. This means that if you have faced discrimination, you could petition Strippers United to file a claim on your behalf against your club with the EEOC so that your name doesn’t have to be involved. The EEOC investigates the violation, and can either choose to personally prosecute a case against the club or give you the license to pursue a civil case against them. Whenever we have the ability to insulate strippers and give them the safety to take action, it’s so exciting, and that little loophole is just the beginning. Additionally, the EEOC takes claims against third party harassers. Your club can get in trouble if they allow customers to engage in unwanted touching, groping, or assaults. Another fun fact is that the EEOC can be called in even if you aren’t hired. Say you’re a Black dancer who knows you’ve faced discrimination based on race: if you can get two more Black friends to audition and note the same thing, you can demonstrate a pattern of discrimination that is enough for a claim/investigation.

Learning about all of this gave me a sense of hope that I often struggle to maintain with this sort of work. Of course, I have to have conviction to do what I do, considering how many unpaid hours of labor I do every week, but it isn’t easy. Along with these wins, we have to engage with so many horror stories of strippers getting screwed over. We have to deal with infighting sometimes and other interpersonal conflicts. We also have to deal with what happens when a union campaign implodes. The campaign that was saddest to see dissolve happened because of the pandemic. One club was on the verge of taking a vote and then suddenly, none of the dancers knew if they had a job. The club shut down due to the quarantine. Everything came to a screeching halt for almost a year, and when that club reopened, they did a dastardly deed: they did not rehire many of the core labor organizers. They didn’t cite any reason why those dancers were not rehired, they simply did not get an invitation to return. It was a devastating blow to the group, and unfortunately, because many of the agencies that combat this practice have limitations for how long past an incident one is able to file a claim, there wasn’t much these dancers could do to get their jobs back. I understood why the dancers who were rehired agreed to return, after a year of being out of work, people were just grateful to be employed again. But it was also sad to see a lack of solidarity. Unfortunately, strippers are a very fragmented workforce. We are conditioned by managers and sometimes even veteran strippers to believe that we are all in competition, and that only the best strippers get the bag, instead of understanding that our power comes from collective action.

Working as the president of Strippers United has been an enlightening experience. I know so much more about labor rights than I ever imagined I would. I could continue going on and on about our work and where we hope to expand to in the future, and at some point I will, but for now, consider checking out our new site and read the article in Flaunt. Give us them link clicks and show some love for all the hard work we do. If you or someone you love wants to give a donation instead of getting a physical gift, consider donating to our work. It means so much to us. We literally don’t make any money at this point, and I would love to one day be able to pay our volunteers a minimum hourly wage at least for what they do. I hope you all have a happy holiday season. I will be posting one last time this year, probably something short so that I too can actually take a break. Thanks as always for supporting my work.