Strippers at Hollywood dive bar file to unionize

Topless picket lines may become a thing.

Strippers at the Star Garden Topless Dive Bar in North Hollywood filed this week with the National Labor Relations Board for a union-recognition election.

If the poll of pole dancers succeeds, they would be affiliated with the Actor’s Equity Association and thereby the AFL-CIO.

Star Garden would also be the first unionized strip club in the country since the Service Employees International Union-affiliated Lusty Lady in San Francisco closed in 2013.

“These dancers reported consistent compensation issues - including significant wage theft - along with health and safety risks and violations. They want health insurance and other benefits, like workers’ compensation. They need protection from sexual harassment, discrimination and unjust terminations,” Actor’s Equity Association President Kate Shindle said in a press release.

A Star Garden performer working under the name Velveeta concurred, saying in the same release that “we like what we do. We would like our jobs even more if we had basic worker protections.”

Dancers at Star Garden began picketing outside in March in protest of unsafe working conditions, including the failure of security to protect dancers from unruly customers.

Star Garden is “a very, very small place” where managers could see egregious customer behavior.

“Despite all these girls’ complaints, nothing happens,” a dancer working under the name Ava told the Los Angeles Times.

Velveeta concurred.

“Star Garden is an example of the worst of the worst. But every club has problems. Some clubs are better than others, but none are ideal,” she told CNN Business.

But strip club owners and operators see a unionization push as a death knell for business and its particular features, which don’t include regular salaries and work hours.

“Professional entertainers want to go home with cash and set their own hours. The employment model can’t offer that because a club can’t function with massive overtime, unpredictable scheduling, and a slew of other impracticalities,” strip club operator Ryan Carlson told Bloomberg Law.