February 16, 2015 5:35 AM

You may take your clothes off for a living, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be protected under the law

Any tourist guide to Portland will tell you about the strip clubs. There are dozens of them, something for any taste or any neighborhood, helped to ubiquity by Oregon’s fierce protection of free speech. Tired of watching well-meaning strangers impose their own visions for improving the plight of the dancer, some of Portland’s seasoned strippers are working directly with state lawmakers and professional lobbyists. Around the country, strippers have stepped up their fight for better working conditions. Some are suing. Others have filed complaints with state regulators. A handful have unionized. But the effort in Oregon to work directly with the Legislature — with the support of lobbyists — is unique…. “The hardest part about being a stripper is battling the stigma that we are victims that need help from outsiders,” said Elle Stanger, a stripper who’s been active in the movement. “It doesn’t matter if you work in education, clergy, any kind of blue collar work — the people who do the work know what the work environment needs.”

One of the things Portland is famous for is the city’s reputation for being sex-positive. There’s a pronounced “live and let live” vibe here when it comes to sexuality. One of the ways this openness is manifested is in the number of strip clubs that do business in the Rose City. Portland’s even home to a vegan strip club, and a second one has been rumored for awhile now. The collective legislative morality here is at low ebb compared to some other cities, and one could argue that Portland has simply chosen to be honest about what exists because of our humanity. Portland’s not unique when it comes to people having sex, wanting to have sex, or virtually anything related to sexuality; we’ve just decided to let people be themselves…as long as no one gets hurt. Which is where this problem comes into play.

Strip clubs, even here in relatively egalitarian Puddletown, are renowned for treating their dancers like interchangeable parts. Most owners provide a positive environment but the working conditions in some clubs are just this side of miserable, dancers often have few rights and even less recourse for solving disputes, and the generalized public perception of them as exploited victims doesn’t help their cause.

Now strip club workers in Oregon are suing for better working conditions and treatment, while others are attempting to work with the state legislature to codify standards to ensure fair treatment and decent working conditions.

The dancers and lobbyists have settled on a handful of improvements they’d like to pursue.

Ideally, they want to see strip clubs comply with mandatory health and safety standards — clean stages, structurally sound poles, adequate security. But that could be a tough sell in the Legislature.

More realistically, they plan to push for a mandate that clubs display a poster outlining dancers’ rights with a hotline they can call to ask questions or report abuses. They want the hotline to be staffed by people with experience in the industry, not bureaucrats or law enforcement.

Strippers generally work as independent contractors rather than employees. They pay a stage fee or a portion of their earnings to the management, bartenders, bouncers, DJs and other support staff.

The contractor status means clubs don’t have to pay payroll taxes or provide health insurance. It also means that dancers can’t be managed like employees.

In Oregon, most clubs treat the dancers as contractors in an effort to save money, but what many miss is that treating an employer as a contractor means you don’t have the right to certain things. For instance, if you dictate the hours a person works and the manner in which they work, that person isn’t a contractor. They’re an employee, because they’re under your direct command and control. Too many club owners wish to have their cake and eat it, too. That this comes at the expense of dancers isn’t something many concern themselves with.

A fair and uniform set of standards would at least help inform dancers of their rights. Regardless of whether you frequent strip clubs or your feelings about those who take their clothes off for a living, they’re workers deserving of rights to fair treatment and compensation. Now’s a good a time as any to do the right thing for those who provide a service there’s always been- and likely always will be- a market for.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on February 16, 2015 5:35 AM.

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