'Bold And Brave': Stripper Strike Celebrates Union Effort

NORTH HOLLYWOOD, CA — Charm was always told working as a stripper would hurt her chances of working as an actress.

"Somehow I always knew that was [bull]," Star Garden dancer Charm said.

Charm felt proud of her work as a stripper. She saw herself as an artist doing the same work as any actor or dancer: performing to make someone feel something powerful.

"Sex work doesn't become degrading until it becomes devalued," Charm said.

Charm is among roughly 25 topless dancers at North Hollywood's Star Garden Topless Dive Bar who are working to become the country's only strippers union. The group on Wednesday filed a petition for union recognition with the National Labor Relations Board, ultimately looking to be represented by Actors' Equity, according to Actors' Equity President Kate Schindle. If approved, it would be the first time in 25 years that the nation had a strippers union.

Clad in bright costumes, the Star Garden dancers on Friday took to an LED-lit catwalk on the sidewalk outside the bar to celebrate Wednesday's major step forward. As they have since March, the Star Garden dancers and their supporters laughed, ate food and danced on their picket line outside the bar well into the night.

The theme for Friday's picket line was "Protest X Couture."

"The joy is a natural ecstasy for doing this. Because strip clubs are so oppressive, to break through that and to be standing together, we have so much natural joy in this," said Velveeta, a Star Garden worker involved in the union effort. "When we were out on the picket line the first night, we were dancing just spontaneously. We had music going — we were just high, so high on the feeling of standing up to these people."

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The dancers are seeking labor protections like fair pay, health insurance, worker's compensation and more, Schindle said.

Star Garden was Star Garden dancer Velveeta's first strip club in 2017 and she recently returned to work with her friends again. But what she found were "snowballing safety issues" and a trail of unfair firings, she said.

Strippers are uniquely vulnerable to certain dangers like harassment, many organizers noted Friday.

"I love my job. I have met, and even befriended, some of the most beautiful, talented and intelligent women working in these clubs," said Sinder, who has been a stripper for about a decade. "But it pains me to say that I have also witnessed and experienced some of the worst racism, sexism and sexual assault in these clubs. We deserve better. We are people too."

Given that Actor's Equity already represents around 51,000 performers and stage managers in live theater, adding strippers makes perfect sense, said Schindle, the union's president. The Star Garden dancers' work is similar to that of many performers represented by Actor's Equity, some of which already have protections for nudity in their union contracts.

Like many dancers, strippers often have short careers, are prone to injury and vulnerable to abusive working conditions without a union, according to Douglas Gabrielle, an actor and member of Actor's Equity.

"Equity is the perfect place for them. ... Equity is all about live performance — whether it's stripping or dancing on Broadway, it's still live performance," Gabrielle said. Gabrielle came out Friday to show the strippers that Actor's Equity supports them and is excited about their addition.

"Everybody that I've talked to thinks it's a great idea. I think it's wonderful that the union is spreading out a little bit and taking a look at other forms of performance and bringing them into the fold," Gabrielle added. "That's, I think, very forward-looking on their part."

The Star Garden dancers are creating a roadmap for including strippers in the cultural definition of performance, a move that many organizers suspected would create a chain reaction within the stripping industry, organizers said.

Finding a union partner was not easy, said Selena, President of strippers' rights advocacy group Strippers United. Many unions were afraid to take on the challenge of representing workers with such unique dangers.

For the strippers, the fight is about much more than working conditions. This movement is about de-stigmatizing sex work and affirming strippers as hard-working and creative performers, organizers said Friday.

"The Star Garden strippers have demonstrated strength, tenacity and courage. But these qualities do not make them unique among strippers," said Jordan Palmer, an organizer with Strippers United.

Even if not through a union, the Star Garden dancers are emboldened and ready to win the fight for fair labor conditions and respect, Velveeta said.

"We can see the future, and we're just around the bend, I think. So we feel really emboldened in what we're doing," Velveeta said. "We realize the stakes for this campaign... At the same time, we'll win no matter what."

"We're going to keep fighting no matter what," Velveeta said.