NEW YORK: Thirty exotic dancers at a topless bar in Hollywood, Calif., are about to vote to join the Actors Equity Association, and a majority “yes” vote would make them the only organized group of strippers in the United States.
Regulators at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) set a voting date in a memo on Thursday.
Workers in all industries and professions are increasingly seeking social protections and benefits through unions. From Amazon.com and Apple Inc to Starbucks Corp, organizing efforts are gaining momentum.
If the majority of the estimated 30 strippers vote to unionize, they will join the Actors Equity Association, a union that represents 51,000 professional actors and managers.
Dancers at the Star Garden Topless Dive Bar have been picketing for months for better working conditions, including better security and safer stages as well as higher pay and access to benefits, according to Velveeta, a dancer from the bar who prefers to go by the stage name to avoid being blacklisted.
After initially presenting their petition to the club owner, the women were denied access and unable to return to work.
The owner of Star Garden Bar could not immediately be reached for comment.
The bar owners argued in two hearings in September that they had not met the $500,000 gross income threshold to be under the jurisdiction of the NLRB.
The NLRB’s regional director in Los Angeles issued a ruling that the Star Garden met the board’s standards for live entertainment venues and ordered an election by mail-in ballot, according to the memo.
Ballots will be mailed to dancers on October 14 and counting will take place on November 7.
The Star Garden dancers aren’t the first strippers to seek union representation. The Lusty Lady strippers in San Francisco organized the Exotic Dancers Union in 1996 and were affiliated with the Service Employees International Union, according to the Actors’ Equity Association.
The Lusty Lady closed in 2013.