Musician/activist Tom Morello really will perform at any union gathering. He recently performed at the reopening of a strip club in Los Angeles. Why? Because the dancers at the Star Garden Topless Dive Bar in North Hollywood have successfully formed the first strip club union in the US.
The dancer’s strike began in mid-2022, after several employees petitioned the bar’s owners over the wrongful termination of two dancers. They also raised concerns about their safety, as they are in “a room which is regularly full of belligerently drunk men who push our boundaries.” This picketing caused the club to file for bankruptcy due to having no performers.
By May 2023, these protesting workers voted unanimously to unionize as Equity Strippers Noho within the Actors’ Equity Association. While their contract is still being negotiated, management is recognizing the union. So, Star Garden is reopening under an interim agreement, with everything hopefully being finalized soon.
Morello showed up to celebrate this landmark victory for workers’ rights by playing the song “Hold the Line” from 2021’s The Atlas Underground Fire. He also led a call-and-response that went “When I say ‘union,’ you say ‘power!’”
The Rage Against the Machine guitarist even took the celebration to social media. “While the owners are still doing very shady things it was a night of radical unity and radical rump shaking,” he posted to Instagram. Reminding everyone that these performers aren’t out of the woods just yet, while union busting is illegal, it still happens. But this is still a huge step forward for the rights of employees in an often marginalized industry.
Morello also recently performed at pickets for the ongoing WGA/SAG-AFTRA strikes. Just in case anyone was confused about where he stands. [Anytime there’s a worker’s rights strike, Morello and his mother, activist Mary Morello, are often not far away.]
We’ll keep you posted on updates about the unionizing of Star Garden Topless Dive Bar in LA. As well as any more protests/strikes Morello may attend. You can check out some footage of the event below:
