Originally published at: LA strippers look to join Actors' Equity | Boing Boing
…
8 Likes
I hope this starts a trend in an industry notorious for exploitative management and nasty customers.
29 Likes
Or continues the movement pioneered at the now-defunct “Lusty Lady” in San Francisco (as chronicled in the 2000 documentary Live Nude Girls Unite)
21 Likes
Good for them! There’s a long, long history of sex workers of all stripes organizing to phenomenal benefit.
21 Likes
Agreed. This is excellent news!
21 Likes
Derailing the thread with bigotry is not cool.
17 Likes
This is a great move, joining up with an existing union is an excellent idea rather than having to start from scratch, even if a schism is necessary later. In New York City, the UFT took in early childhood educators / caregivers, which is huge for a population of overworked, underpaid people who many brush off as “babysitters” rather than professionals with valuable knowledge and skills. There is an interesting parallel to them with strippers, and their conceptual proximity to stage dancers, but with the strange “oh but they’re just…” brush off.
13 Likes
People very much look down on folks who do sex work, and work adjacent to it like stripping. I really believe its not just needed, but necessary to give them more protections. I hope their efforts succeed and that more places do the same.
13 Likes
Excellent- we need more workers covered by unions. Especially ones so vulnerable to exploitation.
And Equity already includes dancers.
21 Likes
Dancers dance for a living. Whether there’s clothing or not shouldn’t matter.
14 Likes
19 Likes
The fact is any group of employees should have the right to unionize.
Why is that so controversial.
7 Likes
I vaguely remember an article at ohjoysextoy about strippers in Portland looking to unionize. I’m at work right now, or I would look up the link.
2 Likes
Hmmmm, i checked and didn’t see anything about strippers looking to unionize but they did make a few comics and interviews related to strippers
1 Like
As an AEA member I’m delighted at this – the more the merrier. But I was under the impression that the American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA) already covered this category of performer – what we used to call burlesque.
5 Likes
Perhaps AE has better benefits?
2 Likes
Back in my wilder days I worked as a bouncer, then manager of a women owned (mother/daughter) strip club in NM. I often thought the ownership made a big difference in the treatment of the dancers, both in terms of by the staff and by how we responded to asshole customers. Unionization would’ve been even better, of course. But this was…god…30years ago.
6 Likes
Maybe. I’d be shocked, since I always think of AEA as the weakest, poorest little union, where the least money is made. But who knows. I suppose there’s some overlap, with some exotic dancers also being AEA performers; that may have been the genesis of this. But AGVA represents Vegas performers and the like, and seems like a cleaner fit. But as others have said, unions don’t only cover one particular type of worker.
3 Likes
Wiki shows the assets/disbursements/ liabilities/receipts financials and membership records for AEA and AGVA. Any accountants here who could tell us the story from looking at these?
1 Like
As always, don’t forget to watch carefully and….
2 Likes
