Editing Sex worker (section)

=== Unionization of sex work ===
The unionization of sex workers is a recent development. The first organization within the contemporary sex workers' rights movement was Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics ([[COYOTE]]), founded in 1973 in San Francisco, California. Many organizations in Western countries were established in the decade after the founding of COYOTE.<ref name="sex worker unionisation Gall" /> Currently, a small number of sex worker unions exist worldwide. One of the largest is the International Union of Sex Workers, headquartered in the United Kingdom. The IUSW advocates for the rights of all sex workers, whether they chose freely or were coerced to enter the trade, and promotes policies that benefit the interests of sex workers both in the UK and abroad.<ref name="IUSW: Who We Are">{{Cite web |title=IUSW: Who We Are |url=http://www.iusw.org/iusw-who-we-are/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140315075748/http://www.iusw.org/iusw-who-we-are/ |archive-date=15 March 2014 |access-date=15 March 2014 |publisher=International Union of Sex Workers}}</ref> Many regions are home to sex worker unions, including Latin America, Brazil, Canada, Europe, and Africa.<ref name="Sex worker organizations around the world">{{Cite web |title=Sex Worker Rights Organizations and Projects Around the World |url=http://www.bayswan.org/orgs.html |publisher=Prostitutes' Education Network}}</ref>

In unionizing, many sex workers face issues relating to communication and to the legality of sex work. Because sex work is illegal in many places where they wish to organize, it is difficult to communicate with other sex workers in order to organize. There is also concern with the legitimacy of sex work as a career and an activity that merits formal organizing, largely because of the sexism often present in sex work and the devaluation of sex work as not comparable to other paid labor and employment.<ref name="sex worker unionisation Gall" />

A factor affecting the unionization of sex work is that many sex workers belong to populations that historically have not had a strong representation in labor unions. While this unionization can be viewed as a way of empowering sex workers and granting them agency within their profession, it is also criticized as implicitly lending its approval to sexism and power imbalances already present in sex work. Unionization also implies a submission to or operation within the systems of capitalism, which is of concern to some feminists.<ref name="sex worker unionisation Gall">{{Cite journal |last=Gall |first=Gregor |date=1 January 2007 |title=Sex worker unionisation: an exploratory study of emerging collective organisation |journal=Industrial Relations Journal |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=70–88 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-2338.2007.00436.x |s2cid=154670925}}</ref>

====Unionizing exotic dancers====
Performers in general are problematic to categorize because they often exercise a high level of control over their work product, one characteristic of an independent contractor. Additionally, their work can be artistic in nature and often done on a freelance basis. Often, the work of performers does not possess the obvious attributes of employees such as regular working hours, places, or duties. Consequently, employers misclassify them because they are unsure of their workers' status, or they purposely misclassify them to take advantage of independent contractors' low costs. Exotic dance clubs are one such employer that purposely misclassifies their performers as independent contractors.

There are additional hurdles in terms of [[self-esteem]] and commitment to unionize. On the most basic level, dancers themselves must have the desire to unionize for collective action. For those who wish not to conform to group activity or want to remain independent, a union may seem as controlling as club management since joining a union would obligate them to pay dues and abide by decisions made through majority vote, with or without their personal approval.

In the ''Lusty Lady'' case study, this strip club was the first all-woman-managed club to successfully unionize in 1996. Some of the working conditions they were able to address included "protest[ing] racist hiring practices, customers being allowed to videotape dancers without their consent via one-way mirrors, inconsistent disciplinary policies, lack of health benefits, and an overall dearth of job security". Unionizing exotic dancers can certainly bring better work conditions and fair pay, but it is difficult to do at times because of their dubious employee categorization. Also, as is the case with many other unions, dancers are often reluctant to join them. This reluctance can be due to many factors, ranging from the cost of joining a union to the dancers believing they do not need union support because they will not be exotic dancers for a long enough period of time to justify joining a union.<ref>Brooks, S. (2001). Exotic dancing and unionizing: The challenges of feminist and antiracist organizing at the Lusty Lady Theater. Feminism and anti-racism: International struggles for justice, 59-70</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Chun |first=Sarah |date=1999 |title=An Uncommon Alliance: Finding Empowerment for Exotic Dancers through Labor Unions |url=https://repository.uchastings.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1085&context=hwlj |journal=Hastings Women's Law Journal |volume=10 |issue=1 |page=231}}</ref>