This story is from The Dominion Post
Nineteen strippers who were fired en masse by Calendar Girls are campaigning for better contracts.
A group of 35 dancers signed an email asking the Wellington strip club’s management for better pay and written invoices for their services. Instead of the 50% cut in the 2023 contract, they asked for their previous 60% cut to continue.
The day after the email, on January 31, a manager asked 19 of the dancers to clear out their lockers in a Facebook post.
A spokesperson from the group – known as Fired Up Stilettos – said the 19 dancers fired were the more experienced contractors, seen as troublemakers by management.
In her words, the managers picked the wrong group to fire at the wrong time, with a spotlight on the industry after backlash against removing sex workers from OnlyFans.
“We’re the most experienced in the club, the loudest, the most opinionated, the feminists, the fieriest.”
Fired Up Stilettos launched the campaign on Monday, and it has been picking up momentum on social media. The group is asking for contracts with better pay, fairer conditions and the removal of non-competition clauses which keep them working for one club.
In the two days since the Instagram page was set up, Fired Up Stilettos has gained more than 1000 followers. The Gofundme page has raised more than $8000, which will go towards income for some of the group who are struggling as well as helping fund a meeting at Parliament. Their posts have received messages of support from politicians including Wellington mayor Tory Whanau.
The spokesperson said the response so far had been overwhelming, after financial stress and a few weeks of being “devastated” by the loss of their jobs.
“Some of us have been reduced to tears. We’ve been convinced for so long that nobody cared, so it’s been really overwhelming and so nice.”
In her years at Calendar Girls, this was the second time a group of women had their contracts ended for asking for better pay, she said.
“There’s been a huge build up over the years, of seeing our friends being fired and not being able to stand up for them. It’s a difficult moral dilemma – do I keep my job or do I do what’s right?”
Strippers are usually independent contractors, not employees. But their contracts include clauses barring them from providing services to competing clubs.
The spokesperson for Fired Up Stilettos said strip clubs had a history of firing any dancers who asked for a better cut of the profits, whether on an individual or collective basis.
In practice, dancers were signing the club’s contracts without being able to negotiate the terms, she said. Strippers who tried to negotiate would be put on a blacklist which was shared between strip clubs nationwide.
Unfair pay and conditions were an industry-wide problem that the group wanted to address.
“Enough is enough, because we know this happens all across New Zealand. We also know from a global context that we have some of the worst house fees in the world.”
They’re happy to be independent contractors, but want the independence that goes with it, instead of being locked in a contract with a specific club.
“It would mean clubs actually have to work to keep their dancers happy. They wouldn’t have you under their thumb anymore.”
Fired Up Stilettos is planning to meet with MPs, launching a petition on Parliament’s website in the next few days, and will be bringing their campaign to Parliament next month.
The proposed Calendar Girls contract for 2023, seen by Stuff, includes “inconvenience fees” which the stripper must pay to management, including for “rudeness to patrons or management”, “loitering in changing rooms”, and “swearing”. The penalties range from $100 to $500.
Calendar Girls said the fees were not applied to the dancers in Wellington, but a spokesperson for Fired Up Stilettos said it was still a problem to have them hanging over dancers as they worked. She was worried about the newer dancers left at the club who had all signed the 2023 contracts.
“They’re signing these contracts because they’re scared, even though every single person hated those contracts. ... There’s absolutely no reason management and venues should be taking up to 60% of each and every transaction from each dancer. It’s ludicrous.”
Calendar Girls said in an emailed statement that while the percentage cut for service had dropped, the dollar amounts of payments to strippers had increased. With “hindsight”, the club should have been increasing the cost of services more frequently.
The 19 contractors were “told they could reapply online” and their locker space was needed for other dancers, Calendar Girls said.
A spokesperson from Fired Up Stilettos said they were not told they could reapply, and one stripper from the group who tried to enter the club was turned away.
