Finding Aid to the Lusty Lady Collection
Finding aid prepared by Kate Tasker.
Labor Archives and Research Center
2014
San Francisco State University
1630 Holloway Ave
San Francisco, CA, 94132-1722
(415) 405-5571
larc@sfsu.edu
Title: Lusty Lady Theater collection
Date (inclusive): 1996-1998
Collection number: larc.ms.0365
Accession number: 2010/010
Extent:
0.4 cubic ft.
(1 box)
Repository:
Labor Archives and Research Center
J. Paul Leonard Library, Room 460
San Francisco State University
1630 Holloway Ave
San Francisco, CA 94132-1722
(415) 405-5571
larc@sfsu.edu
Languages: Languages represented in the collection:
English.
Abstract: This collection contains rank-and-file organizers' records relating to the successful campaign to unionize the Lusty Lady
Theater in San Francisco, California. In addition to standard union issues such as pay, grievance procedure, hours, benefits
and time off, this collection documents issues specific to exotic dancers, such as management rankings and rewards based on
dancers’ attractiveness, privacy violations resulting from one-way glass windows and patrons’ unauthorized filming of dancers,
and safety concerns. Materials include union and management flyers to employees and patrons, correspondence (including letters
of support for the union), clippings, union meeting notes, notes refuting management arguments, National Labor Relations Board
case documents, pamphlets, draft versions of the first collective bargaining agreement, and union meeting announcements. Also
includes a copy of the manual "No Justice, No Piece! A Working Girl's Guide to Labor Organizing in the Sex Industry" (62 pages).
Copyright has not been assigned to the Labor Archives and Research Center. All requests for permission to publish or quote
from materials must be submitted in writing to the Director of the Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf
of the Labor Archives and Research Center as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission
of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.
Collection is open for research.
Some material is restricted to protect personally identifiable information until 2050. Access restrictions are noted at the
file level, and redacted copies are available when possible. Please contact the Director of the Labor Archives and Research
Center for more information.
[Identification of item], Lusty Lady Theater Collection, larc.ms.0365, Labor Archives and Research Center, San Francisco State
University.
DVDs and videos of "Live Nude Girls Unite" were transferred to the LARC Audio-Visual collection. One t-shirt from the Exotic
Dancers Alliance was transferred to the LARC Artifacts collection.
Collection donated anonymously by a member of the Exotic Dancers Union in 2010, accession number 2010/010.
Processed by Kate Tasker in March 2014.
Collection is arranged as received.
In 1996 dancers at the Lusty Lady Theater in San Francisco brought their concerns about the club’s one-way glass windows to
their managers. Dancers were being filmed and photographed by amateur pornographers without their knowledge or permission,
which was not only exploitative but a violation of privacy. The club had a “no cameras” policy but it was not enforced. When
management didn’t respond to dancers’ requests to remove the one-way glass, workers contacted the Exotic Dancers Alliance
(EDA) in San Francisco. The EDA brought the workers together with Local 790 of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
and convinced the union’s organizing staff to get involved.
Management removed the one-way windows, but did not address other workplace problems. Dancers complained that management played
favorites based on a dancer’s attractiveness, applied unwritten disciplinary policy inconsistently, and fired or suspended
workers for ambiguous and questionable reasons. Employees and Local 790 organizers held a National Labor Relations Board union
election in the summer of 1996 to put a contract in place. Management ran an anti-union campaign before the vote, but the
union was approved 57-15, officially becoming the Exotic Dancers Union of the SEIU.
Following several months of negotiations, a strike, and a lock-out, the EDU ratified a contract with the Lusty Lady Theater
in April 1997. Workers secured job security, sick pay, automatic raises, and a prohibition on one-way windows. A second contract
was ratified in April 1998. The Lusty Lady was the first and (as of 2009) only successfully unionized sex business in the
United States.
When the Lusty Lady’s owners decided to sell the business in 2003, the dancers bought them out and operated the theater as
a worker-owned cooperative until it closed in 2013.
Sources:
"No Justice, No Piece! A Working Girl’s Guide to Labor Organizing in the Sex Industry." 1998. Lusty Lady Collection, larc.ms.0365,
Labor Archives and Research Center, San Francisco State University.
“A Brief History of the Lusty Lady Theater”.
Lusty Lady San Francisco website. http://www.lustyladysf.com/history/.
Burana, Lily. (2013 Aug 31). "What It Was Like to Work at the Lusty Lady, a Unionized Strip Club."
The Atlantic. http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/08/what-it-was-like-to-work-at-the-lusty-lady-a-unionized-strip-club/279236/.
This collection contains rank-and-file organizers' records relating to the successful campaign to unionize the Lusty Lady
Theater in San Francisco, California. In addition to standard union issues such as pay, grievance procedure, hours, benefits
and time off, this collection documents issues specific to exotic dancers, such as management rankings and rewards based on
dancers’ attractiveness, privacy violations resulting from one-way glass windows and patrons’ unauthorized filming of dancers,
and safety concerns. Materials include union and management flyers to employees and patrons, correspondence (including letters
of support for the union), clippings, union meeting notes, notes refuting management arguments, National Labor Relations Board
case documents, pamphlets, draft versions of the first collective bargaining agreement, and union meeting announcements. Also
includes a copy of the manual "No Justice, No Piece! A Working Girl's Guide to Labor Organizing in the Sex Industry" (62 pages).
Exotic Dancers Union.
Lusty Lady Theater (San Francisco, Calif.)
Service Employees Internation Union. Local 790 (San Francisco, Calif.)
Sex-oriented businesses--Employees--Labor unions--Organizing.
Stripteasers--Labor unions--Organizing.
Box 1, Folders 1-4
Box 1, Folder 5
Originals for packet 1996-1997
Box 1, Folder 6
Union media coverage 1996-1997
Box 1, Folders 7-8
Bargaining contract (first) 1996-1997
Box 1, Folder 9
Bargaining contract (second) 1998
Box 1, Folder 10
Bargaining contract (third) 1998
Box 1, Folder 11
No Justice, No Piece! A Working Girl's Guide to Labor Organizing in the Sex Industry (spiral bound manual, 62 pages) 1998