Strippers Are Doing It for Themselves

Antonia Crane, a dancer, author and writing instructor at U.C.L.A. Extension, is hoping to capitalize on the Dynamex decision. Ms. Crane, who did not want to share her age, is a founder of Soldiers of Pole, a labor movement of strippers striving to become a union. “Right now, the Supreme Court is saying, ‘You don’t even have to convince us,’” Ms. Crane said. “‘You’re employees, you have rights and the ability to organize.’”

Strippers have tried to unionize before. In the early ’90s, about 30 women formed the Exotic Dancers’ Alliance in San Francisco, touting slogans like “Stop looking for support in the lingerie department” and “Like an orgy, it only works if there’s a lot of us.” A few years later, strippers at the Lusty Lady in San Francisco, including Ms. Crane, joined the Service Employees International Union.

Since December, Soldiers of Pole has been hosting meetings where strippers can seek advice from lawyers and other advocates. Dancers in California have reported that managers will not allow them to take contracts home; that they are strongly encouraged to sign away their employee rights; or that they are pressured into signing release of claims contracts, in which they promise not to sue the club for any violations and to solve any dispute through arbitration.

Ms. Moon said she has never been able to take a copy of a contract home. “If I asked for a copy, it would be, ‘Don’t come back tomorrow,’” she said. “I was talking about contracts at a club and talking about labor rights. I got texted by a manager saying, ‘We don’t want you to come back anymore.’” Crissa Parker, 30, a dancer in Los Angeles and the creator of a club-rating app called The Dancer’s Resource, said that once, when she asked for a copy of the contract, the manager ripped it up in front of her face.

In New Orleans, some dancers organized into a group called Bourbon Alliance of Responsible Entertainers, in response to raids on the clubs by the Alcohol and Tobacco Commission in 2015. More raids followed in 2018, after which several clubs were closed for weeks at a time.

The police and the Alcohol and Tobacco Commission initially said that the purpose of the raids was to weed out trafficking, but the itemized lists of violations enumerated instances of individual dancers exposing their breasts or genitals, offering to sell undercover police officers drugs, and soliciting undercover officers for prostitution.