"Market Street Cinema class action lawsuit
If you worked as a performer at the Market Street Cinema after December 31, 1998 to present and paid any monies to the operation for the purpose of maintaining employment as a performer, you may be eligible to join a class action lawsuit for recovery. You do not need to be a CA resident either currently or during the time of your performance "contract" with the Market Street Cinema.
If you believe you may be eligible, contact the Exotic Dancers Alliance or a local SEIU office for more info.
EDA: 415-995-4745
SEIU Local Offices (San Fran is local 790):
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It appears that the dance club law enacted in California a couple of years ago has resulted in more than just the one isolated California incident of the Foxy Lady dancer's strike of a couple of months ago. The California powers that be are seemingly intent on creating a formal management/labor relationship between clubs and dancers. This also appears to have the covert support of the large clubowners.
If you're not familiar, Market Street Cinema is one of the highest earning potential clubs in SF. It's also presently one of the highest contact clubs. This class action lawsuit will probably result in a few dollars being paid back to the dancers to cover stage fees the club continued to charge after January 1, 1999. This precedent will also probably be applied to any other clubs in California who also continued to charge stage fees, which will mean a few dollars being refunded to California dancers.
On the flip side, it's highly likely that other provisions of the dance club law will now be strictly enforced i.e. dancers not being allowed to accept cash directly from customers, dancers' funny money tip cash-ins and dancers' private dance percentage payouts being 100% reported as income to the IRS and state tax authorities. California clubowners will also be able to strictly enforce posted employee rules just like "straight" employers in regard to missed work, tardiness, productivity, even physical appearance (based on the Disney precedent).
This legal action IMHO plays right into the hands of the "chain clubs", which will finally allow them to treat their dancers as employees. This will mean unilaterally scheduled work shifts instead of flexible schedules. Because of "full time" employee benefit costs, this will also probably mean that dancers will only be allowed to work 24 "part time" hours or less per week so the clubs won't have to provide health insurance, pensions etc. This will mean less take-home income for the dancers and more for the clubs. This will mean that dancers who don't "produce" to some arbritrary earnings standard, dancers who don't maintain their physical appearance, dancers who decide not to show up for their scheduled shift or show up late can be subject to being fired.
And to think that the Market Street Cinema dancers think they're actually going to come out ahead in this class action lawsuit by getting some of their stage fees refunded in exchange for all of these other changes! Welcome to dancing 2003.



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