Editing Stripper (section)

===Collective bargaining===
As the sex industry has grown and become a more established sector of national economies, sex workers—strippers included—have mobilized to negotiate or demand [[sex workers' rights|workplace rights]]. One means of collectivization pursued by strippers is the formation of labor unions, which involves formal membership. These strippers' unions have tended to focus on economic and workers' rights rather than civil rights, which constitutes a significant departure from the advocacy groups for prostitutes' rights that began in the 1970s and 1980s.<ref name="Gall, G.">{{Cite journal | last = Gall | first = Gregor | title = Sex worker collective organization: between advocacy group and labor union? | journal = [[Equality, Diversity and Inclusion]] | volume = 29 | issue = 3 | pages = 289–304 | doi = 10.1108/02610151011028877 | date = 2010 }} [http://www.ilera-directory.org/15thworldcongress/files/papers/Track_2/Poster/CS2T_1_GALL.pdf PDF] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170207113008/http://www.ilera-directory.org/15thworldcongress/files/papers/Track_2/Poster/CS2T_1_GALL.pdf |date=7 February 2017 }}</ref> The stigma attached to sex work also creates another obstacle to organization because many strippers and other types of sex workers are uncomfortable with declaring their profession publicly, even in a movement to improve their work environment and benefits.<ref name="Ross, B. L.">{{Cite journal | last = Gall | first = Becki | title = 'Troublemakers' in tassels and c-strings: striptease dancers and the union question in Vancouver, 1965–1980 | journal = Canadian Review of Sociology | volume = 43 | issue = 3 | pages = 329–344 | doi = 10.1111/j.1755-618X.2006.tb02228.x | date = August 2006 }}</ref>

One potential critique of the organization of strippers and sex workers of other types is that people in management positions in these industries, who are in a position to perpetuate the exploitation that sex workers face, can infiltrate these labor organizations and lobby for the maintenance of a status quo.<ref>{{Citation | last= Marr | first=Stella |title=Pimps posing as 'sex worker activists' & conflicts of interest (blog) |publisher=Survivors Connect | via = [[WordPress]] |date=24 May 2012|url=http://survivorsconnect.wordpress.com/tag/international-union-of-sex-workers|access-date=16 May 2013}} {{registration required}}</ref>

====Australia====
The Striptease Artists of Australia formed in 2002. The SAA successfully negotiated an [[industrial award]] with the [[Australian Industrial Relations Commission|AIRC]] in 2006. Despite this establishment of an industry-wide minimum standard for labor rights, changes to employment legislature under a Conservative government enabled employers to utilize loopholes such as employing strippers as sub-contractors.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}}

Another group, the [[Scarlet Alliance]], has been involved in advocacy and projects geared towards improving the standing of sex workers since its inception in 1989. While labor rights are an important part of this group's agenda, it is not a labor union.<ref name="Gall, G."/>

====Britain====
The [[International Union of Sex Workers]] is a branch of the [[GMB (trade union)|GMB]], a major [[general union]] in Great Britain.<ref name="Gall, G."/>

====Canada====
In the 1980s, the Vancouver Exotic Dancers Alliance formed and was active for about a decade.<ref name="Ross, B. L."/> The Canadian Guild for Erotic Labour was established in 2003.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Labour pains|url=https://briarpatchmagazine.com/articles/view/labour-pains|first=Jenn|last=Clamen|date=31 December 2024|magazine=Briarpatch|quote=Parallel to this effort, in 2003, sex worker rights advocate and mentor Kara Gillies and I launched a collective called the Canadian Guild for Erotic Labour.}}</ref>

====United States====
The [[Lusty Lady]] of San Francisco is a notable example of collectivization of strippers in the U.S. When the strippers of the establishment successfully unionized in 1996 through the Erotic Dancers' Alliance, the owners of the club closed it. In response, the strippers formed a [[cooperative]] in 2003 to run the club themselves, renamed the Looking Glass Collective.<ref name="Gall, G."/> The Lusty Lady closed in 2013.<ref name="auto">{{cite web |title=In a historic step, strippers at an LA bar unionize |url=https://www.npr.org/2023/05/16/1134667170/strippers-union-los-angeles-dancers-star-garden |website=NPR |first=Emma |last=Bowman |date=18 May 2023 }}</ref>

{{anchor|Star Garden}}In 2023, strippers at the Star Garden Topless Dive Bar in [[North Hollywood, Los Angeles|North Hollywood, California]] voted to unionize and join the [[Actors' Equity Association]], which made them the only group of unionized strippers in the United States.<ref name="auto"/><ref name="strippers-union-actors">{{cite news |title=Strippers have a new tactic in a North Hollywood labor fight. Organizing with an actors union |url=https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-08-17/strippers-unionize-star-garden-north-hollywood-union-actors-equity-association |access-date=15 June 2023 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=17 August 2022}}</ref><ref name="latimes/union-labor-star-garden">{{cite news |title=Dancers at this California topless bar to become only unionized strippers in U.S. |url=https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-05-16/strippers-union-labor-strip-club-star-garden-topless-bar-north-hollywood-california |access-date=15 June 2023 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=16 May 2023}}</ref>