With the recent rumors that have surfaced about clubs like Penthouse and Coliseum supposedly getting their curtains removed soon, another story has popped up that might explain what really is going on. It turns out that the Deja Vu settlement has inspired dancers at other clubs to follow suit. This according to a report from WXYZ in Detroit.
Strip clubs keep losing these lawsuits because they're clearly violating the law. Strip club owners like Alan Markovitz want to control dancers as though they were employees but they don't want pay minimum wage and social security taxes. Poor Alan! Now he won't be able to buy his own island in French Polynesia.
None of these things are cut and dry. But these sorts of lawsuits have been going on since the mid 90's. The first I know of was against SF MBOT.
How much freedom the dancers have and versus how micromanaged they are, all come into play. Some states are more pro worker than others.
Is Deja Vu good in Detroit? That place has such a great reputation. So can the girls do it the way they want, often meaning front room makeout sessions and lots more.?
People here have posted of the Detroit clubs, "They are an expensive version of what in other countries would be called a brothel."
Or is it the standard kind of post Jim and Artie clip joint, where they force all the action into the back rooms, so that the choreography of it is ruined and you are just being played for a chump?
What the above video said about Deja Vu, was weigh ins, fines for being late, and lots of control over the money and what goes on in the booths. Usually this means that they completely control the front room too. So it is just 'wanna dance'.
If it is like this, then sure, the girls can sue to be retroactively reclassified as employees.
But it also means that those are clubs to stay away from. Clip Joints of the worst sort.
Best is when the girls just can do it their own way. The house still gets money, but they really don't control it. Flat access fee per dancer, cover charge, booth and back room fee. But other than that, the club does very little to regulate it. Girls can do what they want in the front room, with very few limits, and they can come and go as they please. No weigh ins, just hire as many girls as they can keep coming in. Always hiring more, because some are always leaving. They get squeezed out, or they want to take time off. House just keeps hiring more, and little is done to regulate what they do. With most stuff, the staff is just always looking the other way.
Then with many girls, front room makeout sessions will become as common as they are in Tijuana, and as long as you keep handing her money, no real time or intensity limit to it.
Actually, the more wild the club is, the more custies that walk in, the more money the club can make. And the less the club controls it, the more the plausible legal deniability, and the easier of a time in claiming that the girls are contractors. Less likely anyone will ever challenge that.
Deja Vu has always tried to play it both ways, and mostly it just play guys for Chumps. It was not like this when Jim and Artie started MBOT, or when New Century got started.
Jim and Artie took serious legal risks, Deja Vu came in after those legal battles where already won, and then they toned the delivery down, but the fantasy level up, and the cost way up.
We need to get more lose clubs, like Market St. Cinema and Pink Diamonds, in San Francisco, and then get Oakland going again with at least hooker bars.
Should try to find out just how it was that Deja Vu was able to take over.
Truth be told, although I am not in favor of businesses exploiting workers unfairly these girls in general, are just looking for an exit strategy so they can continue to party,and not have to work to earn their bread and butter. Most of the strippers pursuing these lawsuits have been interviewed in many other venues and with the lack of ambition many exhibit would not last a week in most jobs with rules and regulations. That being said there more than a few who do well, and actually prepare themselves for a life after they no longer can bank on their looks, but IMHO I think the vast majority of these lawsuits have very little merit but the lawyers pursuing this see a win by forcing business owners to expend endless sums of money and energy defending this crap. Most of these come to a negotiated settlement because it is the cheapest and quickest option not because these cases have real merit.
Oh great idea... strippers revolt, curtains come down, I guarantee a lot less traffic comes through those clubs.
You think I drive 4 hours or of my way to Detroit because I want to eat at Del Taco? No curtains, no usual VIP service then there's no reason for me to keep going out of my way to reach Detroit.
6 comments
Latest
How much freedom the dancers have and versus how micromanaged they are, all come into play. Some states are more pro worker than others.
Is Deja Vu good in Detroit? That place has such a great reputation. So can the girls do it the way they want, often meaning front room makeout sessions and lots more.?
People here have posted of the Detroit clubs, "They are an expensive version of what in other countries would be called a brothel."
Or is it the standard kind of post Jim and Artie clip joint, where they force all the action into the back rooms, so that the choreography of it is ruined and you are just being played for a chump?
What the above video said about Deja Vu, was weigh ins, fines for being late, and lots of control over the money and what goes on in the booths. Usually this means that they completely control the front room too. So it is just 'wanna dance'.
If it is like this, then sure, the girls can sue to be retroactively reclassified as employees.
But it also means that those are clubs to stay away from. Clip Joints of the worst sort.
Best is when the girls just can do it their own way. The house still gets money, but they really don't control it. Flat access fee per dancer, cover charge, booth and back room fee. But other than that, the club does very little to regulate it. Girls can do what they want in the front room, with very few limits, and they can come and go as they please. No weigh ins, just hire as many girls as they can keep coming in. Always hiring more, because some are always leaving. They get squeezed out, or they want to take time off. House just keeps hiring more, and little is done to regulate what they do. With most stuff, the staff is just always looking the other way.
Then with many girls, front room makeout sessions will become as common as they are in Tijuana, and as long as you keep handing her money, no real time or intensity limit to it.
Actually, the more wild the club is, the more custies that walk in, the more money the club can make. And the less the club controls it, the more the plausible legal deniability, and the easier of a time in claiming that the girls are contractors. Less likely anyone will ever challenge that.
Deja Vu has always tried to play it both ways, and mostly it just play guys for Chumps. It was not like this when Jim and Artie started MBOT, or when New Century got started.
Jim and Artie took serious legal risks, Deja Vu came in after those legal battles where already won, and then they toned the delivery down, but the fantasy level up, and the cost way up.
We need to get more lose clubs, like Market St. Cinema and Pink Diamonds, in San Francisco, and then get Oakland going again with at least hooker bars.
Should try to find out just how it was that Deja Vu was able to take over.
SJG
Herb Alpert, Munich
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuByWtxx…
SJG
You think I drive 4 hours or of my way to Detroit because I want to eat at Del Taco? No curtains, no usual VIP service then there's no reason for me to keep going out of my way to reach Detroit.