Strippers At North Hollywood Club Will Vote On Union Representation With Actors’ Equity

deadline.com:

UPDATED with latest: Dancers at a topless bar in North Hollywood have received approval from the National Labor Relations Board for a union recognition election, a move officials said could make them the only strippers in the United States represented by a union, according to the decision obtainedtoday.The NLRB scheduled a mail ballot for dancers and disc jockeys at Star Garden Topless Dive Bar in an order issued Thursday.

The ballots will be mailed Oct. 14 and counted Nov. 7.If workers choose to be represented by a union and the NLRB certifies the election results, the Star Garden dancers’ bargaining unit could be affiliated with Actors’ Equity Association, the national labor union representing more than 51,000 professional actors and stage managers employed in live theater. “Every worker who wants a union deserves a union, including the live performers in strip clubs,” said Kate Shindle, president of Equity. “This decision moves us one step closer.

The employer deployed every tactic they could think of to stall or prevent a union election, choosing to allocate resources to a union-busting law firm instead of simply negotiating a fair contract with their workers.”If a majority of the roughly 30 Star Garden dancers eligible to vote elect Equity as their bargaining representative, the newly unionized strippers would then begin negotiating their first contract with Star Garden’s management.PREVIOUSLY on August 17: Unionizing campaigns sweeping workplaces across the country now include a strip club in North Hollywood.

On Thursday, a majority of 30 dancers employed at the Star Garden Topless Dive Bar filed a petition with the NLRB to hold an election to be represented at the bargaining table by Actors’ Equity Association.If