Pole dancing and placards on Courtenay Place kick off stripper campaign

Strippers say pole dancing on Courtenay Place and an endorsement from union icon and protest singer Billy Bragg are just the beginning of their campaign for better contracts.

Fired Up Stilettos (FUS) formed at the start of February, after 19 dancers were sacked from Calendar Girls in Wellington after they asked for better pay.

The group’s first protest started late on Saturday night outside the club, with dancers and supporters holding glittery signs, dancing and grabbing the attention of passers-by on a night out.

“We’re not going to tolerate independent contractors being treated as disposable any more, because without us it’s just a bar,” said the group’s spokesperson.

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There was “nothing but support” from the community, the spokesperson said, with people joining in, reading the flyers, and getting angry about the strippers’ treatment by the strip club.

“We’re so proud of what we achieved. Saturday was FUS dipping our toes in the water, breaking the silence, and it was absolutely liberating.”

There Is Power in a Union singer Braggshowed up after his concert and joined the dancers, handing out flyers and chanting with the group.

At his Hunter Lounge concert the following night, Bragg had one of the sparkly “Labour Rights for Strippers” placards on stage and made a speech about the cause.

“We were outside Calendar Girls, down there in the centre of town, with the girls who have been sacked because they asked for proper accounting and decent wages and proper terms and conditions.”

It was “a shame” it wasn’t technically a picket line, Bragg said, because he would have liked to tell the teachers back in England that he’d been on a picket line where people were pole dancing.

“But it was a protest for the rights of the dancers, not just at that club but across the city and across the country as well. That solidarity is absolutely as important as any other campaign that we’re involved in.”

Bragg was at the protest for a long time, said the Fired Up Stilettos spokesperson, and “didn’t sing songs, but that would have been pretty iconic”.

The next step for Fired Up Stilettos is a meeting with Green MP Jan Logie at Parliament in March, but Wellington will see more colourful, fishnet-wearing protests before then.

Logie will meet with the dancers to hear their concerns in more detail and discuss possible reform of unfair contracts in the strip club industry.

Strippers are independent contractors, but non-competition clauses mean they can only work for one venue. The 2023 Calendar Girls’ contract – which the 19 sacked strippers fired refused to sign – increased the club’s proportion of earnings from dances to more than 50%.

Fired Up Stilettos wants to see strip clubs’ cut of the proceeds limited to 35% and the removal of non-competition clauses.

Another problematic clause they’d like to remove is a list of fines. Currently, Calendar Girls can impose fines of $100 to $500, which the dancer has to pay to the club, for reasons including swearing, missing shifts, and “rudeness”.

These problems were present across the strip club industry and not just at Calendar Girls, the group’s spokesperson said.

Logie said the core focus of the discussions at Parliament would be to give strippers more power over their work, but she was still not sure what process that would involve.

“This is a legal perfectly legitimate area of work, but there’s growing evidence [strip club] owners have been relying on the age and marginalisation of the strippers in their clubs to exploit them.

“I really hope this is a turning point to end that exploitation and rebalance the power to where it should be, which is shared.”

She hoped workers in other industries could feel inspired by the protest too.

“Seeing these women pushing back and receiving public support, through a layer of stigma and discrimination, I hope is an example for others.”