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).

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.

0.4 cubic ft. (1 box)

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Collection is open for research.