Strippers Strike For Workers Rights

Dancers hold a picket line outside of a topless dive bar to fight for a safer work setting.

Outside of a small, run-down strip club in North Hollywood, car horns blare, chants are shouted and would-be customers join the picket line.

Eighteen of the 24 dancers at the Star Garden Topless Dive Bar were illegally locked out of their workplace after bringing forth a petition to the owners, Jenny and Steve Kazaryan, asking for revised and reinforced safety regulations in the club.

Safety concerns and poor working conditions were discussed between the dancers, leading to a petition immediately signed by 15 employees. After the petition was brought to the owners, dancers were given permission to walk out of the job if they felt unsafe and were told they would not be fired. The dancers who walked out have since been illegally locked out of the club. The incident is under investigation by the National Labor Relations Board.

“We were essentially given permission to leave if we did not feel safe,” said Ava, one of the dancers not allowed in Star Garden anymore. “We have since been locked out of the club and are given various reasons as to why we can’t enter the building.”

The strippers said that sexual harassment complaints from the customers, including illegal videotaping of lap dances and stage performances and accounts of inappropriate touching by patrons, on top of disregard from security and unprofessionalism from management in these situations, pushed the dancers to come together and form a movement that has since materialized into a picket line outside of the bar.

“If you breathe in the general direction of management, you will get fired,” Ava divulged. “If we bring safety concerns forward to the management we are at risk of losing our jobs.”

In the petition, the dancers are asking for working conditions that are standard practices in most clubs countrywide: customers can’t film or photograph dancers in the club or remain in the club after closing unless they are actively receiving a lap dance. Bartenders can’t overserve alcohol to customers and give security authorization to respond to the dancers’ calls. The dancers also ask that security should be allowed to remove dangerous customers from the club without going through management first.

"We're not asking for a lot," said Regan, a dancer who was fired after bringing forth safety concerns. “Simple safety regulations that they should already be following.”

The workers are asking for a group meeting with management and security to ensure clear communication.

"The management has not reached out to us in regards to our call for a group meeting,” said Regan. “But they have tried to reach out individually to us, asking us to speak one on one. We aren't going to do that. We are not compromising."

Formally quitting or leaving the club is not in the strippers’ foreseeable future. Instead of abandoning the protest in search of a new club, the dancers are waiting out the time needed for management to accept or deny their petition.

During the wait for a response from management, nonprofit organization Strippers United volunteered to help the dancers at Star Garden by providing legal help and a support system. Strippers United aids the workers in filing charges with authorities such as the NLRB and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and is pushin

g them towards starting a union.

The striking strippers stated they have filed five charges with NLRB and over 30 claims with OSHA, including insect and rodent issues, light colored substances seeping from the ceiling and nails protruding from the stage.

Besides filing legal charges, forming a union led by Strippers United is also on the dancers’ agenda.

“Forming a union will ensure better working conditions for these dancers,” said Stoney, a board member of the nonprofit. “We are just the beginning. We hope more clubs will come forward and join the fight with us.”

The strippers of Star Garden will be the first union created by strippers, for strippers. The last time exotic dancers attempted to unionize was in 1996 in San Francisco, but it was unsuccessful due to the majority of the girls not wanting to unionize.

Star Garden’s management has not responded or acknowledged the dancers’ choice to unionize. The picketers will continue to protest until responses from management are heard.

“We deserve to come back,” said Ava. "We've built a community here. These girls are family."

Star Garden has not responded for comment.