Why Other Strippers Pushed Back On The Star Garden Dancers Efforts To Unionize

A feminine presenting person with medium-dark skin tone wears black curly hair to the side and a one piece white leotard with the belly cut out while balancing on a pole with their arms to the side. Behind them is a red curtain.

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In Part 2 of Imperfect Paradise: Strippers Union, the dancers of Star Garden take their union campaign public and get pushback from a group they didn’t expect: other strippers. The episode follows the campaign for one whole turbulent year, from their victory in getting Actors Equity union representation to the bankruptcy of Star Garden.

About that pushback: The episode delves into the criticisms Star Garden dancers faced for being a mostly white group using the term “stripper strike,” which was previously a term used by Black strippers in response to discriminatory practices in strip clubs. The Star Garden dancers also received blowback for pushing for unionization as the primary strategy for improving dancers’ experiences, highlighting an ongoing debate over who actually benefits from unionizing this industry.

We meet dancers who are pushing for alternate solutions to common industry inequalities, including Cat Hollis of PDX stripper strike, who led a campaign to put pressure on multiple clubs and target issues of racism across Portland, Oregon, strip clubs; and Onyx Black, who thinks strippers shouldn’t be unionized employees, but rather independent contractors.

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A feminine presenting person with medium-dark skin tone wears black curly hair to the side. Behind them is red draped fabric.

Onyx Black, a stripper and pole dance instructor, says working conditions declined for strippers after California passed AB5.

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Samanta Helou Hernandez

LAist

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Onyx Black advocates for a repeal of AB5 or a carve out of the law for strip clubs so dancers can be classified as independent contractors

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Samanta Helou Hernandez

LAist

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Meet Onyx: Onyx Black started stripping at the age of 37 after spending many years working in the corporate world. “It's one of the most toxic places I've ever worked,” Onyx says. “Having all of these white men looking down on you … And at the strip club, all of those white men are giving me money and I'm looking down at them.”

Onyx says she made good money as a stripper and liked the scheduling flexibility she got as an independent contractor. Then, everything changed in 2020, when California passed AB5, a controversial labor law that caused many strip clubs to re-classify their dancers as employees, and as a result, let many of them go.

Onyx now advocates for a return to independent contractor status for strippers through her organization Artists Revolt.

Star Garden management opposed their dancers’ unionization campaign — halting the ballot count by claiming the strippers were independent contractors, not employees, and later filing for bankruptcy, which led the dancers to believe they might have a shot at buying the club themselves.

How can I listen? Here's Part 2:

When the Star Garden strippers go public with their union campaign, they get pushback from the club’s management and a group they didn’t anticipate — other strippers.

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New episodes of Imperfect Paradise: Strippers Union publish Wednesdays wherever you get your podcasts, on LAist.com, and on broadcast at LAist 89.3 the following Sunday.