‘Dream come true’ for L.A. dancers who just formed the only strippers’ union in the U.S.

Reagan broke down in tears when she found out that she and her fellow strip club dancers had finally formed a union.

After a unanimous vote on Thursday, the dancers at the Star Garden Topless Dive Bar in Los Angeles have joined the Actors’ Equity Association, making them the only active members. unionized strippers in the United States. And he hopes others will follow suit.

“When they finally announced victory, I was like, bawling,” said dancer and union organizer Reagan. As it happens hosted by Nil Köksal. “Just a crying mess.”

The CBC has agreed to identify Reagan by her stage name to protect her safety.

Lawyers for Star Garden said in a statement that the club is “committed to negotiating in good faith with Actor’s Equity as the first collective bargaining agreement that is fair to all parties.”

Dancers feel insecure

The union fight began in March 2022 after security guards at the club “repeatedly failed to protect” dancers from violent or threatening patrons, and the club’s manager was fired by people who raised concerns, Actors’ Equity said.

“It was really galvanizing that brought us together,” Reagan said. “There’s a kind of Wild West attitude to security measures.”

Reagan said dancers are not allowed to ask security guards to intervene when patrons are being harassed or threatening. However, they must take it to the management, who will decide what meets the bar for intervention.

Security guards, too, have to get the green light from management to intervene if they see rowdy customers in the club.

“There’s a very strange situation from the middle man when you’re in a small club and there’s alcohol in this club, and sometimes the customers are drunk and they’re being rude and they’re being rude,” Reagan said.

“You get to the point where it becomes intolerable.”

Dancer Lilith – also a stage name – told The Associated Press that customers are also allowed to stay in the bar after closing, which makes the dancers feel unsafe because patrons can see them dressed “out of our stripper personas” and recognize the cars they drive . when they got home, he said.

But when Reagan rejected this policy, he said he was fired. Another dancer was fired for interfering when she saw a customer filming a colleague on stage without permission, Lilith said.

That’s when Star Garden dancers banded together and submitted a petition to the management asking for better security conditions and demanding the return of their co-workers.

“What happened was that the dancers who signed the petition were locked out of the club, not allowed to come back to work the next day,” Reagan said. “That’s what led to the picket line, the strike.”

Workers remained on the picket line, he said, for the next eight months.

15 months of war

After the lockout, the dancers joined Actors’ Equity, which filed a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) union election on their behalf.

The NLRB conducted a mail-in election and plans to count the November vote. But those results were put on hold when Star Garden challenged the rights of some voters, and filed for bankruptcy protection.

The union announced this week that the club’s management had agreed to a settlement.

“Star Garden decided to establish, because it has always been a fair and equal opportunity employer, which respects the rights of employees,” lawyers Josiah R. Jenkins and An Nguyen Ruda, who represent the club, said in a statement.

Counting of votes continues on Thursday. All 17 dancers chose to join.

“If we had known on Day 1 that this was going to be 15 months of our lives and that it was going to be very difficult and not an easy road, I don’t know that we would have made that choice,” Reagan said.

“And I’m really happy for the naivety that we have, and we just put one foot in front of the other, then here we are. And it’s worth it, thank God.”

As part of Tuesday’s settlement, Star Garden agreed to drop its bankruptcy filing, reopen the club and offer fired and locked-out dancers back.

“I feel very optimistic about my return,” Lilith said. “It’s definitely going to be dark when we’re back on a certain stage, but I know we’re going to build a rallying community around us.”

Reagan is also looking forward to getting back to work.

“I plan to return, first of all, because I think that it is a really beautiful fairy tale to be able to walk back in the club as a unionized dancer to win. It’s just a dream,” she said.

“And also, what a dream to work in a unionized strip club in America.”

Only – but not the first time.

In the late 90s, San Francisco’s Lusty Lady dancers organized the Exotic Dancers Union. But the club closed in 2013.

“I visited something like that like a pilgrimage, oh wow, what’s it like to work in a unionized strip club? And that was, like, years and years and years ago. So it was a dream come true for me,” Reagan said.

Actors’ Equity Association president Kate Shindle said this set a new precedent for strippers in the US

“I’m not convinced that the magnitude of what these workers have done has not been done,” Shindle said in a statement. “If the strippers Star Garden can do it, despite the massive and unique obstacles to manage in that industry, so everyone can. I’m so, proud people.”

Reagan, meanwhile, is excited for what’s next.

“I always hope that other strippers in the United States will be inspired,” he said.