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Nationwide worker efforts to form unions in various sectors have made their way to a Los Angeles area topless bar where a group of exotic dancers have filed paperwork attempting to unionize.
On Thursday, the majority of the 30 strippers employed at Star Garden Topless Dive Bar in North Hollywood, California filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board for a vote to be represented by the Actors’ Equity Association, Deadline reported.
If the employees are successful and election results are certified by the board, they would become the first strippers in the United States to be represented by a union, according to Deadline.
Actors’ Equity is a national labor union that speaks for more than 51,00 actors and stage managers working in live theater.
Exotic dancer performs at Florida strip club
(Getty Images)
“Strippers are live entertainers, and while some aspects of their job are unique, they have much in common with other Equity members who dance for a living,” Actors’ Equity President Kate Shindle told Deadline. “In my conversations with them, these dancers reported consistent compensation issues — including significant wage theft — along with health and safety risks and violations. They want health insurance and other benefits, like workers’ compensation.”
Shindle added that the dancers “need protection from sexual harassment, discrimination and unjust terminations.”
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“We applaud their efforts to seize their collective power and unionize, like so many others across the country who are fed up with toxic workplaces,” Shindle said. “When they approached us for support, we did what unions should do: We said yes.”
Star Garden Topless Dive Bar in North Hollywood, California
(Google Earth)
The effort to unionize began in March when club security guards allegedly failed to protect dancers from unruly customers which prompted dancers and activists to picket outside the club to speak out against unsafe working conditions, Deadline reported.
“We like what we do,” Velveeta, a Star Garden dancer, told the outlet. “We would like our jobs even more if we had basic worker protections. We’re like so many other workers who have learned that it’s not a choice between suffering abuse or quitting. With a union, together, we can make needed improvements to our workplace.”
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Strippers have pushed for union protection in the past, Deadline reported, including dancers at San Francisco’s Lusty Lady club who unionized in 1996 with the Service Employees International Union until the club closed in 2013.
Star Garden did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
