These exotic dancers in Los Angeles voted to unionize what is now the only unionized strip club in the U.S. Here's how they got here ...
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00:00Strippers, be divided!
00:02We'll never be divided!
00:04Wake up, get unplugged, don't go inside this club!
00:18We have been standing out here in the rain with a huge group of people.
00:25I am excited for the example that it's gonna set for strippers
00:28and I hope that it starts a wave.
00:31We're not asking for a lot, we're asking for the same rights
00:34and dignity and respect and safety as everybody else.
00:49Here's our tally, look at all those humans!
00:52Look at all the humans we've turned away!
00:54We love themes, strippers love a good theme.
00:58Welcome to the Roast of Star Gardens!
01:03My friends don't understand why I would go to Star Gardens.
01:06They like to give money to the homeless, I like to give money to the topless.
01:17The thing that I got fired for is because they weren't kicking all the customers out at the end of the night
01:22and so I brought up this concern to the manager on duty.
01:28The bosses weren't there that night.
01:30His response was to make jokes and tell me that I was going to be murdered.
01:36I showed up ready to work for my next shift and then the boss came out and told me
01:42in the parking lot that I was fired for going off on staff.
01:46After I was fired, another dancer was fired also for safety and privacy concerns.
01:54She was fired because she intervened when a customer was filming another customer on stage,
02:00topless, without her consent.
02:02We weren't allowed to go to the security if we needed help.
02:05Nothing happened to the customer who was filming a dancer without her consent, topless,
02:11but she was fired.
02:14Security! Why won't you help me?
02:38We want our privacy to be respected.
02:41That means we want customers to be kicked out at the end of the night so that they are not lingering.
02:46We want to be able to call security when we have an issue with customers on the floor.
02:51We also want copies of our contracts, which were never given to us.
02:55We want anti-racist language in the hiring practices.
03:01This strip club is extremely racist.
03:05They have not hired a single black dancer since they took over this club.
03:09In June of 2021.
03:11That is why you see white bodies and light-skinned bodies in our campaign.
03:16Because that is all that this club hired.
03:18And we want just cause firing, where you can't be fired for a discriminatory reason,
03:26and you can't be fired for no reason.
03:28It has to be just cause.
03:39This was like, okay, they're still not acknowledging the strike.
03:42Okay, well, we're going to hit you with 33 OSHA complaints.
03:45We were complaining about holes in the stage.
03:48Literal gaping holes in the stage.
03:51Nails sticking out of the stage.
03:53The pole was unsafe.
03:55There would be broken glass on the stage and in the lap dance area.
04:01Things were not properly cleaned.
04:03There were complaints about rodents and bugs and the bathroom was not up to spec.
04:09There was a lack of ventilation.
04:12There were a lot of issues.
04:33We are revolutionizing.
04:40We are changing this industry.
04:41It's happening right now.
04:43You can be a part of it or you can watch it happen, but it's still happening.