So when is the last time you heard about sex workers organizing for their rights and winning? If your answer is "it's been a while" or "never"... that's because it doesn't happen very often.
Successful organizing is hard to do. It takes a lot of time & energy & savvy & resources. And obviously Working WA members know that sex workers are workers and need a voice in the workplace. But not everybody sees it that way. So there's not a lot of money out there going to organizations working to win new rights for sex workers.
But we're doing it anyway. And we're getting it done.
This is big news: strippers with Working Washington organized together and won a new law which was passed by the State Legislature and signed by the governor. This new law — initiated and developed by dancers — is going to make clubs put in panic buttons and ban violent customers, and will create a new know-your-rights training for dancers.
And it establishes a unique dancer advisory committee at the Department of Labor & Industries which gives the people actually doing the work a say in how all of this happens.
Yup. It's a law affecting dancers at strip clubs that was actually driven forward by dancers at strip clubs.
It's an important step forward. But there's more to do. Dancers still have to pay "house fees" of up to $200 — that's money they have to pay every night just to be able to work that night. And we're up against a huge corporate monopoly that controls almost all the clubs in Washington.
We know that there aren't a lot of organizations willing to take on this work. But we're doing it anyway. And we need your help to keep it up.
Take the next step and make a $30 contribution for strippers' rights. We can't do it without you.