MONTRÉAL—The Sex Work Autonomous Committee (SWAC), a sex workers' rights group based on Montreal, recently announced a voluntary strike by sex workers and erotic performers on May 23.
The strike comes as Montreal is set to host the Formula 1 Lenovo Grand Prix Du Canada that weekend. SWAC said in its announcement, "F1 is not only a symbolically important time for a sex work strike, but also a materially important time."
The group added, "We must disrupt these exploitative labor practices where our management employs them the heaviest, and profits from them the most. It is up to us as dancers to fight these managerial abuses collectively and fight for the working conditions that we deserve!"
One of the central demands of the strike is for the federal government of Canada to officially decriminalize all types of consensual sex work across the country.
However, the core issue at hand is for dancers and performers working at the various venues across Montreal to be treated as employees, not self-employed independent contractors.
"The first step is to break free from the idea that we are self-employed," SWAC says. "The truth is that we have an employer and he owes us safe working conditions like in any other jobs!"
Once this employee-employer relationship is established, the group argues, then workplace and labor conditions will improve. SWAC and its members want club owners to be subject to national labor relations laws, including the right to unionize, rights to be free of violence in the workplace, to have sanitary workplaces, and to put an end to hiring and scheduling discrimination. SWAC urges clubs to adopt policies of "no more hiring and scheduling based on race, gender identity, age or size."
The group wants access to unemployment benefits and to benefit from programs administered by the Quebec Commission for Standards, Equity, Health and Safety at Work. First steps in further achieving these demands include putting an end to mandatory bar fees at the strip clubs across the Montréal metro.
"The bar fee is seen by many dancers as a symbol of freedom," notes SWAC. "You pay to work, and in exchange, you’re the master of your own schedule. But this is becoming less and less true.
"One club in Montreal even demands that dancers book themselves several months in advance," the group adds. "Calling in sick is also difficult in many bars. We’re far from the idea of self-employment where you can work whenever you want."
"The reality is that we’re clearly trapped in an employer/employee power dynamic, and the bar fee model benefits only the bosses."
On May 23, performers and sex workers will either engage with the strike by not paying bar fees or via other signs of protests, like not taking clients during the race weekend.
