Results 1 to 18 of 18

Thread: Unionized or co-op strip clubs?

  1. #1
    Featured Member K Sweet's Avatar
    Joined
    Jul 2009
    Location
    Washington
    Posts
    859
    Thanks
    892
    Thanked 547 Times in 221 Posts

    Search Unionized or co-op strip clubs?

    I know the San Fransico Lusty Lady is coopertively run, and before that they unionized. Are there any others?
    Goodbye Seattle Lusty Lady, where every Miss is a Hit, and every Hit is Missed. 1985-2010.

  2. #2
    Moderator charlie61's Avatar
    Joined
    Apr 2008
    Posts
    13,467
    Thanks
    10,869
    Thanked 20,993 Times in 6,795 Posts

    Default Re: Unionized or co-op strip clubs?

    Certainly not in my neck o' the woods...

  3. #3
    Member
    Joined
    Nov 2009
    Location
    chicago
    Posts
    20
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts

    Default Re: Unionized or co-op strip clubs?

    Lusty Lady is a peep show right?
    No there isnt anything out in the south of chicago

  4. #4
    Featured Member
    Joined
    Mar 2007
    Posts
    1,207
    Thanks
    110
    Thanked 247 Times in 168 Posts
    Blog Entries
    1

    Default Re: Unionized or co-op strip clubs?

    the lusty in sf is the only one I know of.

  5. #5
    Featured Member K Sweet's Avatar
    Joined
    Jul 2009
    Location
    Washington
    Posts
    859
    Thanks
    892
    Thanked 547 Times in 221 Posts

    Default Re: Unionized or co-op strip clubs?

    I just checked their website again. It says they're the only co-op and unionized sc. But I think there are other unionized ones.
    Goodbye Seattle Lusty Lady, where every Miss is a Hit, and every Hit is Missed. 1985-2010.

  6. #6
    God/dess Athenathefabulous's Avatar
    Joined
    Feb 2009
    Location
    Istanbul, Turkey
    Posts
    3,724
    Thanks
    1,381
    Thanked 2,975 Times in 1,158 Posts

    Default Re: Unionized or co-op strip clubs?

    i think it would be cool to set up a temporary strip club in some place with no clubs and no laws barring it (make it private dance type deal) and it be kind of a co-op setting.

    im not the one to come up with this idea, but i think its a good one. its something id like to set up in the future .
    The best thing i have heard in a strip club to date:
    customer: we should get married right now! we should get a shotgun marriage!
    me: uhh... i think you are misunderstanding what a shotgun marriage means. A shotgun marriage means you knock me up and my daddy shows up at your door with a gun and forces you to marry me and raise the baby. You mean elope.
    customer: hmm... nah actually i will take the shotgun marriage. At least then we would be having sex.


  7. #7
    Featured Member K Sweet's Avatar
    Joined
    Jul 2009
    Location
    Washington
    Posts
    859
    Thanks
    892
    Thanked 547 Times in 221 Posts

    Default Re: Unionized or co-op strip clubs?

    ^The SF Lusty is really well run. I was at the Seattle one which wasn't unionized and its closed now. So I'm in favor of unions.
    Goodbye Seattle Lusty Lady, where every Miss is a Hit, and every Hit is Missed. 1985-2010.

  8. #8
    Moderator charlie61's Avatar
    Joined
    Apr 2008
    Posts
    13,467
    Thanks
    10,869
    Thanked 20,993 Times in 6,795 Posts

    Default Re: Unionized or co-op strip clubs?

    ^ Have you ever read Bare? It's about the Seattle Lusty. It's kind of lame b/c she only danced for a year, but the book is still entertaining. Could be interesting for you to read since you've worked there!

    http://www.amazon.com/Bare-Naked-Tru...0044458&sr=1-1

  9. The Following User Says Thank You to charlie61 For This Useful Post:


  10. #9
    Featured Member K Sweet's Avatar
    Joined
    Jul 2009
    Location
    Washington
    Posts
    859
    Thanks
    892
    Thanked 547 Times in 221 Posts

    Default Re: Unionized or co-op strip clubs?

    I read it. And its so funny because she hated the booth. When I worked there girls LOVED picking up booth shifts! She definitely left a lot out but reading it before my audition made me less nervous.
    Goodbye Seattle Lusty Lady, where every Miss is a Hit, and every Hit is Missed. 1985-2010.

  11. #10
    God/dess tempest666's Avatar
    Joined
    Sep 2008
    Location
    Hamburg, Pennsylvania
    Posts
    10,607
    Thanks
    2,705
    Thanked 13,685 Times in 4,414 Posts
    Blog Entries
    5
    My Mood
    In Love

    Default Re: Unionized or co-op strip clubs?

    call me a dummy but how do unionized SC's work?
    "Fake tits are like Kevlar. They don't guarantee your chances of survival but they sure as hell improve it."
    Tempest

  12. #11
    Member CleoF9's Avatar
    Joined
    Feb 2008
    Posts
    37
    Thanks
    8
    Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts

    Default Re: Unionized or co-op strip clubs?

    I just saw "Live Nude Girls Unite," a documentary about how the SF Lusty Lady union formed. It's not perfect and already looks way outdated (made in 2000), but gives you a good idea of how unions in general get started and issues specific to the SC.

  13. #12
    Featured Member K Sweet's Avatar
    Joined
    Jul 2009
    Location
    Washington
    Posts
    859
    Thanks
    892
    Thanked 547 Times in 221 Posts

    Default Re: Unionized or co-op strip clubs?

    ^That's debatable. There were a lot of things we (as dancers) wanted that I believe would have helped us out considerably. Had we been unionized maybe we could perhaps control the situation better. Plus, I think since I worked there when it closed I'd have a pretty good idea about why it closed.

    I'd check out the SF LL website if I wear you. Here's a link to the history page that goes into detail about how they became a co-op and offers some detail into how they are run. http://www.lustyladysf.com/history/
    Goodbye Seattle Lusty Lady, where every Miss is a Hit, and every Hit is Missed. 1985-2010.

  14. The Following User Says Thank You to K Sweet For This Useful Post:


  15. #13
    Senior Member sactinydancersf's Avatar
    Joined
    Nov 2008
    Location
    LaLa Land
    Posts
    122
    Thanks
    20
    Thanked 49 Times in 28 Posts

    Default Re: Unionized or co-op strip clubs?

    The website says good wages... do any girls know what they consider to be a good wage?

  16. #14
    God/dess Kylea2's Avatar
    Joined
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Denver & San Fran
    Posts
    6,907
    Thanks
    181
    Thanked 2,002 Times in 1,285 Posts

    Default Re: Unionized or co-op strip clubs?

    Quote Originally Posted by Athenathefabulous View Post
    i think it would be cool to set up a temporary strip club in some place with no clubs and no laws barring it (make it private dance type deal) and it be kind of a co-op setting.

    im not the one to come up with this idea, but i think its a good one. its something id like to set up in the future .
    I believe that idea primarily came from me... based off of what I thought Tony's club was going to be - which it turned out not to be anything close to. Ef***n & I discussed this a bit. He was very interested, but he doesn't understand the way our industry works, so explaining to him how he'd make money off of it for loaning us the initial investment was like running around in circles. I think we'd need to sit down & show him on paper or via a video conference w/ PowerPoint. Or it could have been that he didn't think the profit would warrant the issues surrounding setting it up.

    Quote Originally Posted by sactinydancersf View Post
    The website says good wages... do any girls know what they consider to be a good wage?
    It used to be around $18.25/hr for the dancers who had been there for awhile. I found an article from 2003 though stating the dancers were then making up to $24/hr.
    http://webcache.googleusercontent.co...ient=firefox-a

    When I lived in San Francisco there was a woman I danced with named Calipso (I'm pretty sure on that spelling). She was a total sweet heart, & was always trying to get me to go do these radio interviews, car washes, etc. with her. She was probably in her mid thirties to forties, had dark kinky hair & darker coco complexion (I'm not sure what ethnicity). She would dance to all sorts of fast paced music, often with a tropical beat. I remember her mentioning to me what the the Lusty Lady paid once. I never went in, but worked almost all the clubs up & down the strip. I think she liked to dance at the different clubs just because it was something different than the peepshow, which I got the feeling she'd been working for a long time. I don't know if anyone remembers working with her, if I ever find her again I'm going to be giving her a big hug... she made a huge difference in how well I adjusted to dancing out there! Britney, you may have worked with her as well, I'm not sure who else was around there back then.
    Don't you ever sleep?
    Not at night...that's when the stars have rather better things to do. They're coming out, shining, that sort of thing.
    - Blog -
    My PM box fills up quick. If you have a question please with your username.
    Congrats to Pryce on doing some much needed tending in his garden!
    - -


  17. #15
    Banned Melonie's Avatar
    Joined
    Jul 2002
    Location
    way south of the border
    Posts
    25,932
    Thanks
    612
    Thanked 10,563 Times in 4,646 Posts
    Blog Entries
    3
    My Mood
    Cynical

    Default Re: Unionized or co-op strip clubs?

    Playing 'devil's advocate' here ... based on 'hearsay' evidence from former dancers

    The early results of unionizing dancers when the club was still privately owned was to increase and to some degree equalize dancer pay rates. However, like union 'wage' negotiations in other industries, the end result was that the club was no longer profitable for the private owners once the higher pay rates plus the new 'mandated employee benefit' costs that went along with employee dancer status ( like worker's comp and unemployment insurance premiums, employer SSI taxes etc.) were factored in.

    In an effort to prevent the club from closing, the dancers formed a 'co-op' to take over ownership of the club. This led to the now dancers / part-owners realizing that they had to reduce pay rates in order for the club to break even ( given the new 'mandated employee benefit' costs that the club still had to pay regardless of ownership ). This resulted in both a significant reduction in hourly pay rates, but also more 'equalization' of pay rates. This in turn prompted a number of the club's former higher earnings potential dancers to leave for 'greener pastures' - since the club's employee pay structure was essentially confiscating a good portion of their individual customer 'sales' and redistributing that money to other dancers who weren't making nearly as many individual customer 'sales'. This negatively affected the overall 'quality' of the available dancers, thus the club's overall customer spending.

    After recognizing that the 'equal pay' concept was having unintended side effects ( i.e. reduced overall customers / customer spending ) the dancer / owners agreed that some form of 'incentive' based pay system needed to be reinstated. This led to dancers receiving both a basic hourly paycheck plus X dollars in incentive payment for every 'booth' or other 'customer service' they individually sold.

    Arguably, in the final analysis, because the 'mandated employee benefit costs' could not be avoided, all dancers wound up earning less than they were able to earn as independent contractors. Additionally, because of the de-facto redistribution of individual dancer gross earnings into equal hourly base pay for all dancers, high earnings potential dancers wound up earning far less than they otherwise would have as independent contractors. On the flip side, thanks to the equal hourly base pay, mediocre dancers wound up earning more than they otherwise would have as independent contractor dancers.

  18. #16
    Featured Member K Sweet's Avatar
    Joined
    Jul 2009
    Location
    Washington
    Posts
    859
    Thanks
    892
    Thanked 547 Times in 221 Posts

    Default Re: Unionized or co-op strip clubs?

    The part about booth sales is a little confusing since on stage a random window opens (to the dancer's POV anyways) and she dances for them. And since it is a peepshow w/ glass, dancers can't really communicate to sell a booth. They could sell a "Private Pleasures" show, which is a single booth and stage (which usually has only one dancer, sometimes two for "Double Troubles"!), in which case the pay could reflect a dancer's personal earnings. However, those shifts are generally scheduled after a dancer's shift for one hour, maximum income being a little over $200 (unless she's REALLY good at getting customers to tip).
    ANYWAYS! My main point is if a dancer was a high earner in the Private Pleasures booth, she would continue to make good money because that is based off of commission, unlike the stage which was never commissioned. If she was really seeking a job for "greener pastures", quite honestly the Lusty does not pay as well to normal strip clubs. But it is however, the funnest job I have and probably ever will have! And also, there was very little burn out and minimal cost for outfits (since breasts and crotch always needed to be exposed), which made coming into work a bit easier.

    Also, San Fran experienced a decline in profit and decided to sell in 2003, which mirrors the same financial history as its non-unionized sister, the Seattle Lusty Lady. For both early 2000 was rough, due to the internet boom, and I'm sure in SF the additional union's demands. To cope, the Seattle LL was able to get their landlord to cut down rent, but in SF they have have not had the same luck and already had extra costs, which I'm sure contributed to the owner's idea to sell.
    Goodbye Seattle Lusty Lady, where every Miss is a Hit, and every Hit is Missed. 1985-2010.

  19. #17
    God/dess Kylea2's Avatar
    Joined
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Denver & San Fran
    Posts
    6,907
    Thanks
    181
    Thanked 2,002 Times in 1,285 Posts

    Default Re: Unionized or co-op strip clubs?

    Quote Originally Posted by Melonie View Post
    In an effort to prevent the club from closing, the dancers formed a 'co-op' to take over ownership of the club.
    I was just explaining that to a friend last night. I don't know how many times I've said that unionizing isn't the answer, we've already seen that go bad. If dancers care about work conditions then they need to put together an organization that would work at a legislative level to help propose new laws & lobby as needed for changes. These groups could do things as small as requiring that the heat at clubs be set between certain temperatures, or as large as requiring that an entertainer's house fees & tip outs not exceed what she earned during the hours she worked. They could also help with requiring clubs to use a certain percentage of their income from house fees to better maintain the clubs... which sadly many clubs seem to forget that if we are basically "renting space to work" that we have a right to expect that space to be properly maintained. The problem of course is that we go back to the same problems as unions. In order to have such a group they would need to have income, which would probably come either from membership fees or donations of entertainers or other industry people who believe in the organization's work... meaning that it wouldn't be a requirement of anyone. Since most dancers don't even stay in this industry for 4 years, the chances of getting enough of them to care about donating in order to have their work environment better is very low. Probably the only ones who would really be involved are the career strippers, so it would be a very small number trying to work for the greater good of many who often don't care.
    Don't you ever sleep?
    Not at night...that's when the stars have rather better things to do. They're coming out, shining, that sort of thing.
    - Blog -
    My PM box fills up quick. If you have a question please with your username.
    Congrats to Pryce on doing some much needed tending in his garden!
    - -


  20. The Following User Says Thank You to Kylea2 For This Useful Post:


  21. #18
    Featured Member K Sweet's Avatar
    Joined
    Jul 2009
    Location
    Washington
    Posts
    859
    Thanks
    892
    Thanked 547 Times in 221 Posts

    Default Re: Unionized or co-op strip clubs?

    Quote Originally Posted by Kylea2 View Post
    Since most dancers don't even stay in this industry for 4 years, the chances of getting enough of them to care about donating in order to have their work environment better is very low. Probably the only ones who would really be involved are the career strippers, so it would be a very small number trying to work for the greater good of many who often don't care.
    ^This was the nice thing about working at a peepshow. Like I said, there was little burn out. Many dancers had been there several years. Of course there were many who had been there just months and left, but there were more than plenty of dancers who had been there a few years, many around 5-10.
    Goodbye Seattle Lusty Lady, where every Miss is a Hit, and every Hit is Missed. 1985-2010.

Similar Threads

  1. Replies: 6
    Last Post: 04-05-2007, 08:35 AM
  2. Replies: 6
    Last Post: 02-10-2006, 04:17 PM
  3. does anyone know strip clubs that allow 18 year olds to strip in los angeles?
    By katrina428 in forum Stripping (was Stripping General)
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 01-15-2006, 02:41 PM
  4. ADULT STRIP CLUBS AND NON STRIP CLUBS WITH FEMALE
    By DAMONS GIRL in forum Club Chat
    Replies: 4
    Last Post: 12-27-2003, 02:39 AM
  5. Replies: 0
    Last Post: 02-22-2003, 03:48 AM

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •