Strippers Are Workers With the Power to Unionize
Strippers have at least one thing in common with Uber drivers: they're the victims of rampant labor misclassification at the hands of their bosses. But Brandi Campbell, an adult dancer in Ohio, fought the practice in court and won. The law is clear: strippers are workers with the right to unionize and strike.
(Courtesy of Brandi Campbell)
In 2018, Brandi Campbell was working as a stripper at Centerfold Club, an adult entertainment venue in Columbus, Ohio when she wrote a letter to the club’s owner about the club’s rules for dancers. The insistence on high heels, in particular, irked her.
“I’m already quite tall and I hate wearing high heels,” says Campbell, “but they made it mandatory to wear high heels, and one time, the owner whacked my foot with a pool stick because I was wearing ballet flats.”
And there were other gratuitous rules. Every twenty minutes, Centerfold had “up time,” during which dancers had to get up on stage and parade around. There were rules about how much Campbell could charge customers for a dance, and rules about how she should present herself. One time, a manager reprimanded her for sitting with her legs up on a chair, telling her she looked “like a B” (what he meant by this comment was later debated; Campbell says it’s clear that he meant “like a bitch.)
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