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Dancers at the Star Garden Topless Dive Bar in North Hollywood have launched an unfair labor practices strike just seven months after becoming the nation’s only unionized strippers — a move that will effectively shutter the club until it’s over.
The walkout is set to run Thursday, Dec. 7 through Saturday, Dec. 10.
Attorneys for Actors’ Equity Association, which represents the dancers, have filed multiple charges with the National Labor Relations Board over the club’s alleged bad faith bargaining.
They say Star Garden has interfered with the strippers’ ability to earn cash tips and taken undue disciplinary actions against dancers. They also claim the owner has refused entry to some union supporters and charged other union supporters higher fees to enter the club.
Star Garden temporarily shuttered earlier this year amid heavy protests. But the club’s owner reached a settlement with the union in May and agreed to continue operations, negotiate a contract with Equity and bring back dancers who had been dismissed.
The club reopened in August and labor negotiations are ongoing. The next bargaining session is Tuesday, Dec. 12.
“Since reopening, the club owner has repeatedly violated the settlement agreement,” Actors’ Equity President Kate Shindle said. “The dancers we represent, like other workers, deserve to be treated fairly and with respect for their fundamental rights.”
Shindle said the strike will send a strong visual message.
“Instead of performing on the Star Garden stage, they will be dancing in the streets,” she said.
In a statement issued Thursday, Star Garden denied engaging in unfair labor practices and said it has faced mounting operating expenses since reopening in August. The club said it has averaged fewer than eight customers a night over the past three months.
“Costs mounted – insurance, security, legal fees – but Star Garden kept pushing forward,” the management said.
Star Garden added that dancers have “repeatedly acted in ways that disrupt the business.”
Some dancers have also clocked in and refused to come out of the dressing room for hours, the club said, and they have instructed customers to avoid Star Garden and visit them at competitor clubs and underground events.
Management said the club will not be open during the strike.
One stripper, who goes by the stage name “Charlie,” said the club has virtually sabotaged their ability to earn decent tips.
“If a customer wants to tip us, they have to come in with cash,” the 24-year-old Los Angeles resident said. “We tried for three months to get management to put an ATM in. They finally did, but it doesn’t provide $1 bills, so all the dancers have come to work with $1 bills for change.”
Charlie said she used to earn as much as $200 in tips on a good night, but now she’s lucky to get $70.
“Its frustrating,” she said.
A spokesman for the strippers said they are unfairly disciplined if they accidentally get too close to customers while dancing, which is nearly impossible on the small stage where they perform.
“They can’t be within 6 feet of a customer, and if a dancer goes 1 inch over the line, they get a write-up,” he said.
Most of the club’s roughly 30 strippers filed a petition in August 2022 for a union-recognition election with the National Labor Relations Board. They subsequently unionized with Actors’ Equity. But management — arguing that some dancers weren’t directly employed by Star Garden — failed to recognize their union status until May 2023.
The move to unionize, dancers say, grew out of necessity.
The strippers contend that in March 2022 the club’s security guards and management repeatedly refused to protect them from threatening and abusive behavior from patrons. They’ve also complained of unsafe work conditions, including holes in the stage and protruding nails.
That prompted Star Garden’s dancers to stage their first picket line outside the club.
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