The 15-month effort to gain union recognition by dancers employed at the Star Garden Topless Dive Bar in North Hollywood, California, ended in victory in May 2023. An excerpt from Private Parts Unknown, episode 116, Velveeta, one of Star Garden's newly unionized strippers, to explain how this historic milestone came to be. In this clip, Velveeta shares the importance of setting the legal precedents in their case.
On Monday, May 15th, lawyers representing the owners of the Star Garden withdrew all election challenges, agreed to recognize the union, and will meet with the Actors’ Equity Association across the bargaining table within 30 days to negotiate a first contract. The club also will reopen for business and bring back dancers who were dismissed last year.
The spark that ignited the unionization campaign was lit in March of 2022 when the club’s security guards repeatedly failed to protect dancers from threatening and abusive behavior from patrons. Dancers were illegally fired for bringing concerns about safety and security to management. With the assistance of Strippers United, a 501(c)3 organization led by strippers that advocates for strippers’ rights, Star Garden’s strippers began picketing outside the strip club to protest unsafe working conditions. Picketing continued every week through November outside the club’s location on Lankershim Blvd in North Hollywood, California.
Last August, the dancers announced they had affiliated with Equity. Shortly afterward, the national union filed for an election with the NLRB on behalf of the dancers. In the fall, the labor board conducted an election by mail. A vote count was scheduled for November, but the results were put on hold by the NLRB due to employer objections and legal filings. The NLRB was scheduled to hold a hearing this week over the employer objections. That hearing is now unnecessary and has been canceled.
Star Garden’s dancers are not the first strippers to seek union recognition. Strippers at San Francisco’s Lusty Lady organized the Exotic Dancers Union in 1997. They were affiliated with the Service Employees International Union. The Lusty Lady closed in 2013.
So that’s how the Star Garden dancers became America's only unionized strippers at the moment. Perhaps they will inspire others just like they were inspired by the Lusties.
Private Parts Unknown is a podcast about love and sexuality around the world, hosted by Courtney Kocak.
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