LAS VEGAS, Nev. – In what sex worker advocates described as “a historic first,” the Nevada State AFL-CIO has adopted a resolution in support of sex workers’ right to organize.
Co-drafted by Maxine Doogan, President of the Erotic Service Providers Legal, Education, and Research Project (ESPLERP) of San Francisco, and Jupiter Jetson, Chief Steward of United Brothel Workers, the resolution was introduced by Marc Ellis, President of the Communications Workers of America Local 9413 and a Vice-President of the Nevada AFL-CIO. According to the announcement, the resolution passed with unanimous support at the AFL-CIO’s 70th Constitutional Convention in Las Vegas.
“Sex work is work, and these workers deserve to be treated as such,” Ellis said. “This resolution means that going forward, sex workers can know they have the full support of all members of the AFL-CIO.”
“It’s a proud day to stand with United Brothel Workers and take our rightful place among all workers,” Doogan said.
While this is a first for the modern labor movement, the announcement noted there is “a long history shared between sex workers and the labor movement- particularly in Nevada.”
“The relationship between sex workers and the labor movement in Nevada goes back more than a century, to the IWW in the mining camps around Goldfield and Ely,” observed Barb Brents, professor emerita of Sociology at UNLV and expert on sex work, sexual commerce, and sex work policy. “Today’s resolution picks up that thread, affirming that sex workers are entitled to the same rights and protections as anyone else who works for a living. Those are protections that evidence increasingly links to safer working conditions and less exploitation.”
The full text of the resolution is as follows:
Resolution in Support of the Rights of Sex Workers and Erotic Service Providers to Organize
Whereas, a sex worker or erotic service provider is any individual who earns a living through erotic labor, including but not limited to strippers, full-service sex workers, phone sex operators, adult film performers, webcam performers, online content creators, and erotic massage providers, regardless of immigration status; and
Whereas, the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and protection against unemployment,” that “Everyone who works has the right to just and favorable remuneration ensuring for himself or herself and his or her family an existence worthy of human dignity,” and that “Everyone has the right to form and join trade unions for the protection of his or her interests”; and
Whereas, the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) Constitution states that “The Coalition of Labor Union Women seeks to promote unionism and to encourage unions to be more aggressive in their efforts to bring unorganized women under collective bargaining agreements, particularly in those areas where there are large numbers of unorganized and/or minority women”; and
Whereas, the AFL-CIO Constitution states that “The objects and principles of this Federation are to encourage all workers, without regard to race, creed, color, sex, national origin, religion, age, disability, or sexual orientation, to share equally in the full benefits of union organization”; and
Whereas, sex workers are workers, predominantly women and gender nonconforming individuals, who often live and work at the intersection of multiple forms of marginalization and have largely remained unorganized; and
Whereas, throughout Nevada and across the United States, sex workers at non-union workplaces are frequently subjected to hazardous and unsafe working conditions, including wage theft, illegal misclassification as independent contractors, economic coercion through unlawful workplace fees, coerced prostitution, sexual harassment, sexual assault, rape, and the denial of the ability to negotiate wages and working conditions; and
Whereas, the recent unionization of the workers at Sheri’s Ranch as United Brothel Workers, along with the successful organizing efforts at Star Garden in Los Angeles and the Lusty Lady Theater in San Francisco, have demonstrated that workers in this industry can successfully organize and have inspired others to seek solidarity through the labor movement.
Therefore, Be It Resolved, that the Nevada State AFL-CIO supports the right of all sex workers and erotic service providers to organize and collectively bargain for fair wages, safe working conditions, dignity on the job, and the protection of their labor rights. Submitted by CWA Local 9413
For more information on ESPLERP and the advocacy work performed by the organization, go to ESPLERP.org.
