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