Dancers who used to perform at two Portland strip clubs are alleging that the club owners retaliated against them for seeking better work conditions and for calling on the clubs to stop discriminating against Black dancers.
Cat Hollis and Charlie Bronwyn have filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board. Both were organizers of PDX Stripper Strike, which demanded that Club 205, The Venue Gentlemen’s Club and other strip clubs stop discriminatory treatment of Black dancers.
Neither Club 205 or The Venue responded to request for comment about the charges.
Hollis, who worked at Club 205, said the club refused to let her work and would not book her after she began protesting conditions.
Dancers pay the club they work at for their time on the pole, and earn only tips. Therefore, they aren’t considered employees, but independent contractors. While strippers aren’t eligible for traditional unemployment, they may qualify for special CARES Act funds.
The charges of unfair labor practices came after a decision by the National Labor Relations Board in July, which found that an exotic dancer was an employee rather than an independent contractor.
“I asked Club 205 to make a pledge to look at the discriminatory practices in the club that were hurting workers," Hollis said. “They didn’t like that and refused to put me on the schedule or allow me to work.”
Bronwyn said they had a similar experience with The Venue.
“As soon as I advocated for The Venue to consider hiring equity practices and to improve the experience of Black strippers in the club, the management turned on me,” Bronwyn said. “They stopped putting me on the schedule or responding to my texts and calls.”
Hollis is the lead coordinator of Haymarket Pole Collective, which works to implement anti-discrimination policies in the adult industry. The group held multiple marches this summer, walking a mile and a half past several strip clubs in Southeast Portland, calling for equal treatment and cultural sensitivity training.
At that time, Hollis said 27 local clubs had agreed to the collective’s demands, and another 17 had not responded.
Black dancers interviewed at the march said issues of racial discrimination ranged from clubs giving better hours and shifts to white dancers, to not allowing Black employees to dance to certain types of music.
Hollis said she hopes the charges with the National Labor Relations Board will lead to a few outcomes.
“I’m looking for reinstatement — I’d like to get back on the poles at my home club, and potentially I’d like lost wages for the relevant time period,” Hollis said. “And I’d like them to post notices about workers' rights in the dressing room — people have the right to organize without retaliation.”
Hollis said she was taken aback by her club’s response to her demands. She had been in good standing, and is still close with many of the employees. And, she said, her demands were all things that put the club in compliance with the law.
She said things have been challenging since Club 205 didn’t bring her back — because she’s an independent contractor, she’s not eligible for traditional unemployment, and has not received any financial assistance other than the one-time $1,200 payment issued at the beginning of the pandemic. She has been surviving primarily on donations from the community.
“It’s been hard,” Hollis said. “I don’t always know where my rent is coming from.”
She said some clubs have responded to the demands that Haymarket Pole Collective set forth several months ago.
Some members of management have gone to anti-discrimination and anti-racist trainings, and a few have held sexual harassment trainings.
But Hollis said the biggest goal of the collective is to give dancers the agency to stand up for themselves.
“I’m looking forward to NLRB reinforcing that," she said. “We have the right to ask for a safe, equitable workplace, and the right to not be punished because you blew the whistle.”
—Jayati Ramakrishnan; 503-221-4320; jramakrishnan@oregonian.com; @JRamakrishnanOR