A group of witches and wizards chanted "You shall not pass!" in front of a dimly lit strip club in the North Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles.
The strippers of Star Garden have been out picketing for more than nine weeks. They walked off the job in March because of complaints about management handling of safety concerns. They say that management locked them out of the club.
The picketing events have ranged from the Renaissance to OSHA violations and encourage the club's workers and allies to attend and demand better conditions.
It is a potent organizing tactic. At least five workers are usually out on the picket line on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and they are often joined by former customers and union members from other businesses.
Lilith, a picketing worker, said that they needed something to inspire them to show up. If you love a theme, you will show up to the picket or you will be more likely to, so it has been helpful in the rally.
The dancers are trying to make Star Garden the only unionized strip club in the US with the help of Strippers United. They are part of an organizing wave sweeping the nation as workers say no and push back on what they see as unsafe working conditions and unfair treatment.
Lilith said that a stripper deserves the same good working conditions that you would expect from any other job.
A petition from the dancers says that the club fired Reagan, a stripper, before the picket.
Reagan said that after she brought safety concerns about a customer to a bartender, he mocked her and said the customer was going to kill her.
She said she was shaking and crying and had no idea what she was going to do.
Reagan said she was fired when she showed up for her next shift. There are five unfair-labor-practice complaints against the club.
The dancers started talking about organizing after the news broke. They say that the club fired another dancer after a customer took a video of a coworker. The strippers were told not to approach security with safety concerns, after they were pulled into a meeting.
The workers at Star Garden signed a petition in March calling for changes to the club. They walked off the job.
When the workers showed up for their next shifts, they weren't allowed into the club, said Velveeta, a dancer at Star Garden who previously sued the club over allegations of wage issues and employee misclassification.
The owners of Star Garden, Stepan, Steve, and Yevgenya wrote in testimony to the National Labor Relations Board that dancers were asked to leave.
Velveeta said management tried to have one-on-one meetings with dancers.
Star Garden and its lawyer did not respond to Insider's requests for comment.
Star Garden would become the only unionized strip club in the country if the strippers succeeded in unionizing. Lusty Lady, a San Francisco strip club that was the first ever to unionize and to be run by workers as a co-op, would be followed by them. It closed due to a rent dispute.
Reagan said that it was a struggle of ideology and that the greedy capitalists won.
The strippers are joining workers across the country in standing together for better conditions and organizing their workplace without collective bargaining.
I have always wanted to be a stripper and have a union job, but I didn't know if there would ever be an opportunity.
It has been a year of such realizations for many workers. Lilith realized her unemployment income was more than her previous two jobs combined.
She said that it was a wake-up call that employers were lowballing their employees.
Reagan said she sees a line from the conditions of the past two years to the nationwide wave of organizing efforts. She and her friends started online shows when everything stopped. They split the earnings and gave them to charity. It helped her realize that she didn't need the traditional structure of a club to be successful. The striking workers are trying out a co-op model in which they would make decisions and split tips equally.
Reagan said that they don't know how to go back to being exploited in this way.
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