These strippers are unionizing

Brut America

These strippers are on strike to demand better working conditions — and hopefully form the only unionized strip club in the United States ...

Transcript

00:00Strippers united!

00:02Will never be divided!

00:04Wake up! Get unplugged!

00:06Don't go inside this club!

00:14We have been standing out here in the rain

00:16with a huge group of people.

00:21I am excited for the example that it's going to set for strippers

00:24and I hope that it starts a wave.

00:31We're not asking for a lot.

00:33We're asking for the same rights

00:35and dignity and respect and safety

00:37as everybody else.

00:50Here's our tally.

00:52Look at all those humans!

00:54Look at all the humans we've turned away.

00:56We love themes.

00:58Strippers love a good theme.

01:00Welcome to...

01:02The Roast of Star Gardens!

01:05My friends don't understand why we go to Star Gardens.

01:07They like to give money to the homeless.

01:09I like to give money to the topless.

01:19The thing that I got fired for

01:21is because they weren't kicking all the customers out

01:23at the end of the night.

01:25And so I brought up this concern

01:27to the manager on duty.

01:29The bosses weren't there that night.

01:31His response was

01:33to make jokes

01:35and tell me that I was going to be murdered.

01:37I showed up ready to work for my next shift

01:39and then the boss came out

01:41and told me in the parking lot

01:43that I was fired

01:45for going off on staff.

01:47After I was fired

01:49I went to work

01:51for the staff.

01:53Another dancer was fired

01:55also for

01:57safety and privacy concerns.

01:59She was fired because

02:01she intervened when a customer

02:03was filming another customer

02:05on stage, topless, without her consent.

02:07We weren't allowed to go to the security

02:09if we needed help.

02:11We were told that the process

02:13was that we had to ask

02:15management.

02:17Go to management first if we had a safety issue

02:19on the floor during a dance.

02:21And so the dancer, Selena,

02:23took matters into her own hands

02:25and went over to the customer to ask him

02:27to stop recording and to delete the video.

02:29Nothing happened to the

02:31customer who was filming

02:33a dancer without her consent,

02:35topless,

02:37but she was fired.

02:39Why won't you help me?

02:49Why won't you help me?

02:51Why won't you help me?

02:53Why won't you help me?

02:55Why won't you help me?

02:57We want our privacy

02:59to be respected.

03:01That means we want customers to be

03:03kicked out at the end of the night so that they are not

03:05lingering. We want to be able to call

03:07security when we have an issue

03:09with customers on the floor.

03:11We also want copies of our

03:13contracts, which were never given to us.

03:15We want anti-racist

03:17language

03:19in the hiring practices.

03:21This strip club is

03:23extremely racist.

03:25They have not hired a single black dancer

03:27since they took over this club

03:29in June of 2021.

03:31That is why you see

03:33white bodies and light-skinned

03:35bodies in our campaign, because that

03:37is all that this club hired.

03:39And we want just cause firing

03:41where you can't

03:43be fired for

03:45discriminatory reason and you can't be fired

03:47for no reason. It has to be just cause.

03:57They're trying to

03:59bust up the unity

04:01that was forming

04:03by having these private meetings. The dancers said

04:05no, we're not meeting with you privately.

04:07We're demanding change altogether.

04:09And then that led to

04:11the strike,

04:13which is still ongoing.

04:33This was like, okay, they're still not

04:35acknowledging the strike. Okay, well,

04:37we're going to hit you with 33 OSHA complaints.

04:39We were complaining about holes in the

04:41stage. Literal

04:43gaping holes in the stage.

04:45Nails sticking out of the stage.

04:47The pole was

04:49unsafe. There would be broken

04:51glass

04:53on the stage and in the lap dance

04:55area. Things were not properly cleaned.

04:57There were complaints about rodents

04:59and bugs and

05:01the bathroom was not

05:03up to spec. There was

05:05a lack of ventilation. There were

05:07a lot of issues.

05:11It's very unlikely

05:13that they are going to voluntarily

05:15recognize, but

05:17you gotta give it a shot.

05:19So the

05:21National Labor Relations Board,

05:23they're hopefully going to grant us an injunction

05:25which would maintain,

05:27as we are alleging, that we were

05:29fired in retaliation

05:31illegally

05:33for what's

05:35called protected concerted activities,

05:37which includes

05:39standing up for our safety.

05:49Our election

05:51then goes to the NLRB to be certified.

05:53Then we are recognized

05:55as a union.

06:04It existed

06:06as a

06:08unionized strip club,

06:10also a worker-owned

06:12stripper co-op.

06:14It existed

06:16for 13 years

06:18before it unfortunately was forced

06:20to close its doors because

06:22of gentrification.

06:24It's very important to me and

06:26to all of us in the campaign

06:28that this is successful because

06:30it is time. It is time

06:32because there are so many

06:34new industries right now

06:36that are unionizing for the

06:38first time. We're not the only

06:40ones. We are revolutionizing.

06:42We are changing this industry. It's

06:44happening right now. You can be a part

06:46of it or you can watch it happen,

06:48but it's still happening.

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