The Seville Series: Poppin' Bottles!

The Seville Series on StripperLaborRights.com is in full swing, while the NYC stripper strike is making historical waves in mainstream media. Joyfully in solidarity with the NYC stripper strike, I chatted with MarketWatch reporter Kari Paul a couple of weeks ago about my observations in the industry regarding racial inequality and the stigma that prevents strippers from defending their title VII rights here: MarketWatch.

While the NYC stripper strike is partially about racial disparity problems within the industry, it is also about bottle staff extracting money from strippers, competing financially and stealing customers.

At Seville, as in New York City, there are women who work in strip clubs to sell expensive bottles of alcohol. While the specifics of the clubs may differ, the parallels are noteworthy.

Like strippers, the alcohol saleswomen at Seville are scantily dressed. Like strippers, they often experience sexual harassment from staff and customers. Unlike strippers, these women receive an hourly wage and recognition of title VII rights without having to sue for employee acknowledgment. At Seville, they compete with dancers in the champagne lounge, and will sometimes sell blocks of their time to a customer who a stripper has brought up there. It is financially beneficial for the club to allow this, while strippers are at a disadvantage economically, socially and legally.

I avoided going to the champagne lounge at Seville as much as possible, but sometimes customers would ask to go up there and I would agree to hang out with them for a half hour or more.

Usually once I was seated with the customer, a woman selling alcohol would approach us. She was often accompanied by a manager, and they would pressure my customer to spend hundreds of dollars on champagne. Many Seville dancers disliked this, because it makes the customer uncomfortable and takes money away from us. It is the club's way of using our hustling skills to their own advantage, by hawking booze. I would usually warn customers ahead of time that this was going to happen, so that they would be prepared to reject the staff and instead give their extra money to me.

One night close to my termination, I forgot to do that before going to the champagne lounge. An alcohol salesperson who goes by the name Zelene was assigned to interrupt my hustle by poaching my customer. I had never spoken to Zelene before, and politely introduced myself to her with my stage name, Kelly. Zelene sneered at me and replied in a shrill voice,

“OH, I've heard all about you.”

I'm not sure why she was mean to me upon our introduction, but have hypothesized that it probably had to do with her friendships with Jeremy and Megan Chase, as well as most of the Seville staff who were aware of my litigious past by the end of my employment. Zelene proceeded to converse with my customer and did not acknowledge me for the rest of my time in the champagne area, except to occasionally sneer at me.

Hopefully strikes like the one in NYC will spread to other parts of the country, so that clubs will no longer feel comfortable instructing alcohol salespersons like Zelene to behave the way that they do.

I don't have hard feelings for Zelene. She is selling bottles, as she is instructed to do by the capitalist, patriarchal establishment for which she works. She and I were both cogs in their machine. It is disappointing that Zelene was not smart enough to realize this.

Zelene has worked at Seville for a while and is socially invested in their party culture. She will probably be there for a while and not go very far in life or ever evolve her personal understanding of capitalist male supremacy enough to ever understand her role in it or why strippers strike.

It is ironic that despite Zelene's conformity,  she posted a meme on facebook with the famous Laurel Thatcher Ulrich quote, "Well behaved women seldom make history."

May all litigious and striking strippers prevail through obstacles from the wrong side of history.

The Seville Series: Artemis

Artemis was a dancer at Seville during the time that I worked there. I educated her about stripper labor rights, before she began leaking information about our conversations to staff. I want to know Artemis's legal name, and am offering an all-expenses paid vacation to Wisconsin Dells to whoever gives it to me. Please click the contact tab at the top of this page and email me, anonymously or not, for details. I will keep your information private.

As a description to help those who are unsure of who she is-- Artemis has black hair, porcelain white skin and blue-green eyes. She is taller, from Wisconsin and in her 20's. She has an educational background in life sciences, enjoys cocaine and is culturally Catholic. She lived in the Loring Park neighborhood of Minneapolis during the time that she worked at Seville.

The Seville Series: Erika Grinols

Erika Grinols is an older woman bartender and front desk cashier who has worked at Seville for a very long time.

Erika once described my behavior as “bullshit” because I wouldn't sit with a customer who was unwilling to give me any money. She thought I should have sat with him for free. As stated before, Seville most often hires very young and naive dancers without previous experience, because they are much more willing to sit with people who want free attention. Erika received an hourly wage for her labor.

Erika was a person who spent time discussing how she didn't think I should be working there, because I did not give customers free attention. Many of the other dancers avoided her, because she was so mean to them. Many of the dancers wondered aloud why trollish Grinols was allowed to work at Seville and be so cruel to the them for various reasons.

One time, Megan Chase overheard me discussing stripper labor rights with another dancer while I was sitting at the bar. She scurried over to Erika Grinols to tell on me, and then they both stood together to glare at me. Erika Grinols doesn't like it when beautiful women discuss how to defend themselves against their oppressive employer.

If you have any embarrassing, incriminating or salacious information about Erika Grinols, please contact me through the contact tab at the top of this page. If you have information on how Erika has maintained her position at Seville despite her behavior and physical appearance, submitting that would also be appreciated. Prizes will be awarded to whoever submits the most scandalous info. Please email me for the details.

The Seville Series: Jeremy Chase

Jeremy Chase is a middle-aged man who displays a sense of entitlement to the free emotional labor from young women in his workplace. He works as a bar back at Seville and was one of the worst coworkers I have ever had in my life. I never complained about him to management, because he is friends with many of the staff members and had a certain power over them that I did not understand. He often joked about cocaine, and I often wondered if he was everybody's drug dealer. Bar backs aren't normally as popular in strip clubs as Jeremy was. I did not discuss his behavior in arbitration, or even tell most people about it.

My contact tab is at the top of this page. If you have information about Jeremy's past harassment, abuses, criminal history or behavior, please contact me. I will keep your information private if you want me to. I want to understand how a hairy beast like Jeremy Chase became who he is at Seville, despite his lack of substance and success in life.

In the beginning, we would say hi in passing. While he was walking behind me, up stairs for example, he would look at my ass and say things like, “mmm,” in the way that people sometimes do when they have food in front of them. That grossed me out, but I just ignored it, because I was able to dismiss him as a simple and harmless misogynist bar back who nobody really cares about. However, I began to notice his physically flirtatious friendships with some of the dancers. Though Jeremy is out of shape and unsightly, some of the Seville dancers seem to be close with him. While I worked at Seville, I saw him put his hands many of the dancers to hug, caress and cradle. It confused me why he seemed to have such great connections with so many vulnerable young women trying to make a living. I would watch in confusion as these things happened night after night. Unlike any other bar back with whom I have ever worked, Jeremy would be hanging out in strange places, like the dressing room, the small space behind the front stage curtain, and anywhere in close proximity to my fellow strippers. He took up space and attention whenever he had a free moment, to make sex jokes and discuss his love of ass. Jeremy's jokes aren't very funny. For example, he once stated that he gave his roommates a lesson on how to repair a bicycle, in exchange for then giving him “blow jobs.” That was a joke Jeremy was making, and displays his plebeian sense of humor that revolves around his own genitals.

Jeremy is not a professional or successful photographer, but he pretends to be one sometimes. Most real photographers I know don't work full time as a bar back and live in a rental home with lots of roommates like Jeremy does. The photographs that Jeremy puts on the internet are almost always of women, often Seville strippers, wearing little to no clothes. The photos look nice because the subjects are beautiful, but the actual photography isn't anything special. He thinks he is a photographer though, and spent much of his work shift snapping photos of strippers.

Jeremy didn't mind dating the dancers outside of the club, which management knew all about, as well as his wife, Megan Chase, who is a bar tender at Seville. Megan was in her twenties, was cosmetically augmented and fit many mainstream beauty standards . Megan has been mentioned in a previous post here, about when she was disgruntled with me for telling on her friend Amber for sexually assaulting me. Although Megan surrounds herself with awful people, she is a sweet and passive person with sad eyes and a demure personality. Megan disliked me, because her comrades did. I don't think she has very high self-esteem or an identity of her own. Sometimes Megan would poach customers who came to see strippers, and give them lap dances herself. Currently in NYC, many strippers are on strike because bartenders in NYC spend so much of their time behaving like strippers, while also receiving an hourly wage and employee benefits. Some of Megan's work is similar to that.

With my reserved nature and disgusted facial expressions, Jeremy realized that I disliked him. His behavior toward me switched from creepy flirtatious predator, to treating me as a threat to be removed from the club. He began to do things to make my work life uncomfortable and to convince other people to dislike me as well. He would loudly discuss how he didn't think I should be working at Seville because I was not outgoing enough. He would talk to multiple staff members about it, initiating these conversations. He would complain if I was sitting at the bar and he had to do some work up there, because he thought my personality was a “buzz kill.” Jeremy began to critique my body as well, and comment to other people about how he thought I needed to be more curvaceous, so that he could find me more attractive. He would go into gross detail about it. It's painful to experience all that and be mostly powerless. Nobody with power at Seville cares about that kind of behavior. It's a terrible place to be, but a place that a lot of young women want to work. Despite everything that one must endure at Seville, it is a great place to make money. I know I wasn't the only person to be picked on by Jeremy, nor was I the only person to be fired because I didn't go along with his weirdness.

Jeremy didn't spend money at Seville as a customer or contribute financially. He probably didn't have a lot of money to spend. The kinds of women who Jeremy seemed to prefer were the naive and vulnerable. His instagram has a meme that says something like, I like my women how I like my rum: 18 years old and full of coke. That is how people like Jeremy succeed socially. In the regular world, he is a nobody. Seville is the only place where Jeremy is somebody important. He will take great effort to get rid of women who don't agree.

The Seville Series: Verbal Sexual Harassment

Mara and Ben were two bartenders at Seville while I worked there. Both of them verbally harassed me.

Below is a photo of Ben:

Ben has been working at Seville for a long time. He is friends with the original owner, Dino Perlman, who sold the club to RCI a couple of years ago. Ben spent much of his work shift staring at the women on stage, rating their physical attractiveness and making misogynistic remarks about the ones he doesn't like, usually regarding his disdain for body fat. Ben also openly discussed which of the dancers he would “fuck.”

Sometimes when dancers were seated at the bar while Ben was working, he would playfully untie their outfits. Usually they giggled when he did this, but I suspect they were just tolerating his bullshit in order to keep their jobs. He's not attractive or likable, so I can't imagine most women would enjoy his playful assaults. While I was polite and occasionally tipped him, it didn't take Ben very long to decide that he didn't like me. Ben would loudly state, while talking to other people, that he thought I was snobby. He probably thought this, because I was at Seville to work and did not tolerate his disgusting workplace behavior by placating it with giggles and flirtations.

While Ben was a bartender who got paid an hourly wage to work and also earned tips, he had grown accustomed to seeing women's time and energy being taken advantage of for free, from men who expected it. Many dancers at Seville are between the ages of 18-22 and have never danced before, and who were unaware of their labor rights. As such, many don't use their time wisely when hustling, nor have many yet learned to be assertive with customers who wanted their time for free. Many dancers at Seville would sit with customers for free, or endure their degrading behaviors without asking for financial compensation. I didn't do that, because I have learned to conserve my time and hustle rapidly. Ben didn't like that about me very much, so many of his misogynistic remarks were directed at me. He once referred to me as “an animal" for the speed at which I go about my business.

Donald Trump was running for president during the time that I worked at Seville, and there were times when Ben would profile people based on their looks, to determine whether or not he thought they were Trump supporters. The problem with Ben is that he is not very smart or talented with determining what a person thinks about. He once saw a petit man with a sweater wrapped around his shoulders, and thought the man was a Trump supporter based on this, before listening to the man speak and realizing he was a tourist from Europe. Ben apologized to the man for assuming he was an American who would vote for Trump.

After a while, Ben made an interesting judgment about me. He thought that I was a cop, and began spreading rumors that I was undercover. Ben didn't know this, but I have audio recordings that I took of him when he didn't think I was around, of him telling other dancers about his theory.

Mara was one of the bartenders who Ben often worked and chatted with. She hides her face from the internet, so I cannot post a photo of her. For a visual reference, her face strongly resembles Howard Stern's.

Her handlebar for various internet accounts is “juuiceb0x,” and on the internet she pretends to be an open-minded feminist who is opposed to violence against sex workers.

While I worked at Seville, Mara was often a person who Ben discussed women with in degrading ways, while they were bar tending together. While bartender Mara occasionally danced at Seville for a hobby, she probably couldn't make enough money doing it full time like the other dancers were able to, due to her nontraditional physical appearance and cruel behavior toward others. It always confused me that a woman who looks like Mara felt comfortable criticizing dancers based on their appearances, but that is what she did openly and frequently.

The few times that she was preparing herself in the dressing room to dance, she would intentionally get physically close to me, as though she wanted to fight. I avoided her as much as possible. Once while I was by the sink, she came very close to me and whispered something about how unattractive my dancing looked. Seville doesn't have a pole to dance on like most strip clubs do, so I was bit confused on what to do when first starting at Seville.

Some of the Seville staff noticed the large number of single-song lap dances that I was selling, and began to openly dissect how I did it. Interestingly, Mara began to copy what I did during nights that she was dancing. For example, she and the other staff would examine the specific manner in which I touched customer's necks while speaking to them before selling a song. Mara would then try to do this, usually unsuccessfully, during nights that she danced. It was creepy that she began copying me, especially because she continued to discuss me negatively while she was bar tending. I often wondered why an adult woman was engaging in this kind of behavior, especially one pretending to be a liberal feminist in online sex worker communities. I wasn't the only person who had problems with Mara, and she often discussed how management was on the brink of firing her. They never did though. After all, it wasn't Mara standing up for the rights of sex workers and threatening the way Seville ran their business.

One night close to my termination, I told manager William Borea about Ben and Mara's harassment of dancers on stage and harassment of me. Borea suggested that if I tip them, they would be nicer to me. I informed him that I frequently tipped them. He said he would talk to them. In a subsequent shift, I overheard Ben telling another bartender that he and Mara were not allowed to look at me any more. Ben stated that he did not care if he couldn't look at me, because I “ain't hot.” While I think Ben is gross and am not bothered that he doesn't think I am “hot,” having to listen to another comment about my appearance from him was still sexual harassment, even when it was negative. The goal in telling on him was to prevent him from commenting at all. I was terminated from Seville shortly after.

Mara and Ben's behavior is mostly tolerated in the state of Minnesota, and not high enough on the threshold of sexual harassment to have justice in the legal system or anywhere.

The Seville Series: Physical Sexual Harassment

This unattractive man is named Jason Ewing. He is a manager at Seville in Minneapolis.

Jason thought I was attractive and made the decision to hire me after I auditioned at Seville in April 2016. When I came in the next day for orientation, Jason put his hands around my waist in the champagne room area upstairs while he and I were alone, to show me what level of contact was expected from customers. He didn't need to put his hands on me. He could have just verbally described what champagne rooms are like. That is what normal managers do-- maintain a certain level of aloofness and physical space during orientation. Jason put his hands around my waist because he was sexually harassing me.

During my first month of working at Seville, a cocktail waitress named Amber (last name unknown) came up to me while I was sitting with a customer, where she playfully grabbed my breast to get my attention and ask the customer if he wanted any drinks. Sometimes when women are in strip clubs, they think they have a free pass to grab the body parts of dancers. Many women think they can get away with this, because leftist social justice warriors have focused so much of their attention on defeating white male sexual assault that they dismiss assault when it is perpetuated by marginalized groups. To call out the predatory behavior of anyone else doesn't fit the narrative that social justice warriors want to push. I had never spoken to Amber before and was not signaling that I permitted her to touch me.

After Amber grabbed my breast, I told Jason Ewing about it during my next work shift. He said he would talk to her about it. In subsequent shifts for the next couple of months, Amber stayed away from me for the most part. Amber's work friend, a bartender named Megan Chase, proceeded to sneer at me from then on. Many people in the strip club world do not understand why a dancer would have physical boundaries and not want someone to touch her. That is because we live in a rape culture that dismisses the physical boundaries of sex workers. It is considered rude and unfriendly at Seville to resist playful flirtations from coworkers.

A few months after I told on Amber, most of the staff at Seville realized they didn't like me. This made Amber comfortable enough to start bothering me again. While I was sitting with customers, she would bend over with her ass in my face, to ask them if they wanted anything to drink. While I was engaged in lap dances, she would interrupt customers to ask them if they wanted any drinks. I had to tell Jason Ewing about it, to get her to leave me alone. I was fired a couple months later.

At arbitration with Seville, the managers they brought in to testify were ones who I hardly interacted with. Businesses can do that type of thing in arbitration, and Jason Ewing did not have to be subpoenaed. The manager at arbitration, Rayner Perez, stated that he heard Amber had caressed my thigh, rather than what she actually did. Seville's lawyer repeated that story. It was disgusting and gross to be called a liar about reporting my sexual assault from my assailant Amber, pictured below.

The threshold for sexual harassment in Minnesota is very high, because lawmakers in Minnesota are comfortable living in a predatory rape culture. That is one of the reasons why I lost on the sexual harassment claims against Seville.

In my next post, I will discuss the sexual harassment at Seville that was not physical.

The Seville Series: National Labor Relations Board

Between April and September of 2016, I worked at a club in Minneapolis, called Seville. During this time, I encountered sexual harassment, surveillance, illegal tip pooling, misclassification and exploitation of the workers. Seville knew what I was about, so they eventually terminated my contract. I filed a charge with the NLRB, and privately sued them in arbitration for misclassification, sexual harassment and illegal tip pooling. The next number of entries will discuss Seville and be called “The Seville Series.”

***

With the NLRB, I did not have a chance to have a hearing like I wanted to. If a club makes an offer to settle that the NLRB finds acceptable, even if I don't want to settle, the NLRB will approve a unilateral decision to do so. That is what happened with my charge at Seville through the NLRB. A hearing was scheduled that I was willing to attend, but Seville made an offer that the NLRB accepted. Below is the poster that they had to put up on behalf of me:

Seville's NLRB Poster

I wrote to the regional director of the NLRB, requesting that she not approve settlement. While she did not comply with my request, she did send me a nice email, describing how she thought I had already “won” and didn't need to have a hearing. I asked her if I could put it on my website. Below is her email:

Dear Ms. Campbell,

I have considered your request that I not approve a settlement in 18-CA-183731, RCI Dining Services (Glenwood), Inc. d/b/a The Seville Club.  A settlement does not reflect anything less than a win when it provides for a full remedy of the violations.  If we won this case before an administrative law judge, that decision is no less challengeable than the Regional Director’s merit finding.  Specifically, the Judge’s decision can be appealed to the Board and the Board’s decision can be appealed to the Circuit Court, and finally, the Circuit Court’s decision to the Supreme Court.  All of this litigation is at a cost to the Agency, and thus, the taxpayers, which is why the Agency does not litigate cases where a settlement is reached that remedies the violations found.  If we were to present this case to an administrative law judge and they found merit, they would be ordering the same remedies.  It would not be a responsible fiduciary decision for me to take this matter to trial, when there wouldn’t be further remedial relief.  Further, I find it notable that the settlement being presented to me for approval in this case does not contain a non-admissions clause, which is something I rarely see.  A non-admissions clause is usually requested and granted to non-recidivist employers and it says, “By entering into this agreement, the Employer does not admit that is has violated the National Labor Relations Act.” 

I applaud you for your work educating workers about their rights, as employees.   Your charge has resulted in a win; the Region found merit to your charge and the violations will be remedied.  This is a very good win and the settlement, along with the remedies imposed, are a result of your actions advocating for employees’ rights and filing a charge with the NLRB.  The Employer is being held accountable by the remedies required in the settlement.  Furthermore, the settlement requires that the Employer comply with the settlement and not violate the Act by similar conduct or the settlement will be revoked and complaint reissued for trial.  As I stated, this is a settlement that does address all of the employee rights, under the Act, that were violated.  I hope you will reconsider entering into the settlement based on the further information I’ve provided.

Respectfully,

Jennifer Hadsall, Regional Director

National Labor Relations Board, Region 18

Tool: Chip Chermak of the NLRB

Last year, I had to go to the NLRB in Minneapolis to do an affidavit. The investigator taking my affidavit was named Chip Chermak. Chip lazily and sluggishly typed what I was saying for several hours, before we took a lunch break. I finished lunch before him, and waited in the lobby of the NLRB for his return. While I was sitting in the lobby, I overheard two men walking down the hall of the federal building, giddily laughing like school boys. As they approached the NLRB office, one man said to the other,

"What tools does she use?"

The other one replied that he didn't know, and said it in a tone of perverse curiosity. As the two men walked through the lobby, I saw that they worked for the NLRB. One was my investigator Chip Chermak, and the other was an NLRB worker named Joseph Borong. Joseph looked at my legs folded as I sat in the chair, and sneered at me. Chip chuckled condescendingly, and ushered me back into his office so that I could continue the affidavit.

Once in his office, I asked him why he and his coworker were laughing about "tools" together. Chip confirmed that they were laughing about the tools question on the Economic Realities test, in relation to my affidavit. He told me that since Joseph Borong is an attorney, it wasn't a big deal for him to know about my affidavit, even as they were strutting down the halls of the federal building loudly joking about it. I explained to Chip that my case was a serious thing, to be treated with respect and dignity. I explained to Chip that while reporting a strip club to the NLRB was uncommon, that doesn't mean I don't deserve any less respect. Chip continued to chuckle at me, and tell me that most of the time, tools reported to the NLRB included things like saws or hammers. Since Chip was too emotionally undeveloped, misogynist and disrespectful to understand my tools were not perverse or funny objects, I explained to him that the tools in clubs include the stage, couches, chairs, audio equipment, lighting and building-- just to name a few.

Chip's typing of my affidavit was extremely sloppy and full of typos, so I had to return for several days to complete it. He also let me take it home to correct, which I wasn't supposed to do. Eventually, I told Chip's boss about his misogynist treatment of my job and affidavit, and my case was assigned to a different investigator. Chip's boss apologized for his behavior, while also telling me that all of the investigators take their jobs seriously.

One blurb that multiple workers at the NLRB have recited to me is that all of their investigators take their jobs seriously and treat cases with respect. It's upsetting to be gas lit like that, because it wasn't true with Chip Chermak. It is my hope that tax payers who support the NLRB will one day remove Chip Chermak from his position as investigator, by getting him fired.

Reading in The Club

If there's one thing that good 'ole boys who run strip clubs don't like, it's strippers reading.

Sometimes strip clubs are very dead, particularly at the start of a shift. One can sit for hours in the club, as time passes and no money is available. While strip clubs are often dimly lit, I own a reading light that clips on to my books. Recently, I was reading "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking. The DJ, who was pacing about the club, approached me and asked,

"Whatcha readin'?"

I told him what I was reading, to which he replied that he didn't know anything about algebra or science. Since most DJs are really stupid, that didn't surprise me at all. We talked a bit about science, because I mistakenly thought he was interested in time theories. However, he quickly changed the subject to how the owner and manager didn't want me to be sitting at the bar reading, but that they didn't want to say anything to me. He mentioned how I looked unapproachable like that. He didn't mention how the club has been sued, and how the owner and manager are too afraid to tell me not to read, because I could sue them for that. He didn't mention how he wasn't supposed to be bullying an independent contractor into not reading. Luckily, I was recording everything without him knowing. Reading is awesome! I continued to read at the bar after he went away, and I also fantasized about how cool it would be to have a little read-in protest with other strippers.

The owner furiously paced around, watching me reading, but not saying anything. His circular pacing and gelled hair reminded me of a shark. It was hilarious.

My advice to other dancers who like to read books while the club is slow is to not to let bullies intimidate you into not reading at the bar. If you want to talk to customers, approach them yourself. If not, go ahead and enjoy your book. You don't have to sit blankly, staring into space as time passes. If staff bullies you for reading, just record them and sue them. Laugh at them. Know that although you may feel isolated, you are never alone. Your bomb ass settlement check will give you loads of free time to read a heaping helping of books at the local cafe or wherever you want to go.

Activist Threats Tab

Previously on this website, I had a tab called "Activist Threats." In it, there were entries about conflict within the activist community that I experienced or witnessed. I still have an archive of the activist threats tab, available offline, and would be happy to share information with anyone who is wondering about problematic groups or individuals. Some of my Activist Threats topics included: Sex Worker Outreach Project, Caty Simon, Cris Sardina, Elle Stanger and Matilda Bickers. If you would like more information about those activist threats to stripper labor rights, please contact me. I removed the tab, because I want this website to focus more on the lawsuits and clubs. However, exposing threats within the activist world is still important. Information about these problematic entities should be available to anyone who asks. My contact tab is at the top of the page. I'd be happy to discuss McCarthyist Leftists, scabs and other obstacles. Please feel free to contact me.

SJWs are aggressively destroying all that is good and progressive. Avoid them and get out while you still can. It's great on the outside.

I Sued Silk Madison and it was AWESOME!!!

Silk is a chain of strip clubs in the state of Wisconsin. This past Spring, I drove out to the town of Middleton, Wisconsin. Middleton is just outside of Madison, and it is the home of Silk Exotic Madison.

Silk's labor violations were overwhelmingly obvious and clear. Being a stripper there, it was very obvious that I was an employee being misclassified as an independent contractor. Almost everything on the Economic Realities test that classifies workers as employees is something that Silk did. I audio recorded everything that I possibly could.

When the manager, Nelson, was having me fill out the paperwork on my first day, he briefly mentioned that there was an arbitration agreement that I was signing, and that if I wanted out of the arbitration agreement, I could write to the corporate headquarters. The contact information to the corporate headquarters was included in the contract. The problem, of course, was that Nelson did not give me a copy of the contract. I asked for a copy multiple times for a couple of days, and each time, he brushed me off or said he was having problems with the printer.

Silk fired me by email, which I never experienced before. Their email was a reply to an email I sent to them, after googling corporate email addresses. They made up a completely false reason for firing me, which I can easily prove is false. I will save my recordings forever and offer them to any future plaintiffs who want to sue Silk.

After receiving my termination email, I promptly filed a charge with the NLRB and drove to Milwaukee for an affidavit.

Silk was VERY eager to get rid of me, any chance of seeing me again, and the NLRB investigating their club. Therefore, they made a monetary offer that was substantial enough to get us away from them as quickly as possible. The NLRB and I agreed to accept the offer. Silk tried to be sneaky by preventing me from telling anyone that I sued them or discussing my working conditions, but the NLRB wouldn't let them get away with that. I will forever cherish my ability to tell everyone how awesome it was to sue Silk. I will forever keep my audio recorded documentation of their broken labor laws, and I will forever encourage every dancer who has ever experienced worker misclassification at Silk to sue them. You will not be disappointed! If you need help finding out which organizations to report them to for which violations, or if you need a lawyer reference, please contact me! It would also be a good idea to bring a hidden recorder with you to work at all times. I hope Silk has to pay many more settlements in the future. Unfortunately, the one thing I can't talk about is the amount of money that I settled for. Below is the email that I sent to Silk after finding their corporate email addresses, followed by their response email, which contains my termination:

To Whom It May Concern:

My name is Brandi Campbell. I was hired at Silk Madison on June 1st. On June 2nd, I came in to work my first shift. Before working, I had to sign a contract. I asked Nelson if I could have a copy of that contract so I could see what I was signing. He said he would get me one by the end of the night. At the end of the night, he said he would get me one the next time that we worked together. On June 3rd I asked Nelson for a copy of my contract. He said his ink cartridge ran out of ink and he would get me the contract another time. I know that at least two dancers were hired since I was hired, so presumably contracts were printed off for them to sign for the club. I, as well as other workers, should be provided with copies of what they are signing.

I do not agree with arbitration and I do not want to be legally bound to it. Nelson said there is a paragraph in the contract which provides the contact information regarding how I can opt out of arbitration. Unfortunately, despite my multiple requests for a copy of the contract, I still have not been given one.

I do not wish to wear heels at work. I will be wearing ballet flats from now on during work. Last night, Nelson told me it was mandatory to wear heels. I believe I, as well as other dancers, should be able to decide what kind of footwear to wear.

At the end of my shift last night, DJ “South Paw” approached me and asked for a tip. I informed him that it was a slow night and I couldn't tip. He demanded that I give him “just five bucks.” I told him no. He then began harassing me, telling me it was bad to do on only my second shift. I was sitting down and he was standing over me, speaking aggressively. I do not want DJ South Paw to bully me for tips in the future. I suggest paying your employees a living wage so they don't rely on the dancers for money. I believe some other dancers are bullied into paying your workers, and that is not right.

I am scheduled to come into work today, Sunday, but I am sick today and I am not coming in. I am also not interested in seeing South Paw tonight after last night. The thought gives me anxiety.

I expect to have a copy of my contract by my next shift, which is Wednesday. However, the main point of this letter, which I am emailing to Silk, is to notify you that I wish to opt of of arbitration and that I did not want to sign the arbitration agreement at all. I would have followed the instructions provided on the contract in order to opt out of arbitration, but again, despite my multiple requests, I have not received a contract.

Hopefully these problems will be cleared up and my Wednesday shift will be less stressful.

Kindly,

Brandi Campbell

***

Hi Brandi –

        After receiving your email, we took the time to investigate your allegations.     We investigated your allegation of harassment by our D.J. and believe it to be unfounded.  Others who were witness to the conversation between the two of you report that his end of the conversation was very amicable, nothing hostile, threatening or harassing about it.  He was, however, chiding you for because you missed a set obligation:  when it was your turn to perform onstage and your name was called, you did not appear.  On Sunday you did not appear at all, and did not call the club to let Nelson know that you would not be coming in as scheduled.  This absence was a second series of missed set obligations, which constitutes a material breach of the lease agreement.  We are therefore terminating your lease, effective 24 hours from now.

       As to your other point, dancers are routinely given a copy of any documents that they sign when they request them and are also permitted to take documents to consider them and to seek legal advice before signing.   It is our understanding that you did not ask to take your documents to an advisor before you signed them, but you did ask for a copy after you signed them.    June 2 was a busy night, and Nelson just did not get to it before you had left for which he apologizes.  He did have trouble with the printer on June 3.  We are sorry if this delay inconvenienced you.   If you will send us your mailing address, we will have a copy of your lease sent to you immediately.

Regards,

Silk Exotic Madison

Why You Should Be Angry at The Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry

You should be angry at them even if you aren't a dancer. You should be scared and worried. I reported many Minnesota strip clubs to their organization, in addition to privately litigating. They did not help me with any of them. Rather, they called me to tell me that they didn't have enough resources to pursue an investigation. This should upset strippers, because it means the state of Minnesota does not care about them. It means that your tax dollars are not investigating exploitative workplaces, because of an alleged lack of resources.

Citizens who aren't strippers should be worried too. The state of Minnesota does not investigate strip clubs, and their lack of interest is a symptom of a larger problem-- one that says women's issues don't matter. It's one that says subversive workplace environments aren't as deserving of regulation.

I wrote to Al Franken about this, and received an automated response, asking me to donate to his campaign. I was put on an annoying mailing list that usually asks me for money. Al Franken has demonstrated that he also doesn't care about stripper labor rights. It's unfortunate that dancers must rely on private litigation only, but that's the way it is in Minnesota. It's unfortunate that all citizens aren't protected under the law in the state of Minnesota.

Does Brittany Carollo Sadistically Enable Sexual Assault?

When most dancers start working at Larry Flynt's Hustler Club in Las Vegas, they are put on the day time shift, which starts at 4 PM. This is a time of day when clubs are slow, and it is more difficult to make money. Dancers must leave by 10 PM if put on this shift, although sometimes, in order to make more money, they sneakily stay after 10 PM. That is what I did when I first started working at Hustler.

While most of the managers didn't bother tracking me down and telling me to leave at 10 PM, Brittany Carollo went out of her way to bother me about that whenever she could.

For many dancers, being forced to work the day shift meant enduring more sexual assault, out of desperation. Because of the slowness of the day shift, there were not a lot of customers to choose from. Brittany knew all of this, but continued to harass dancers who stayed past 10 PM without her permission.

I only had to work the day shift for about a month before being allowed to come in at busier times. Even after other managers gave me permission to stay while it was busy, Brittany continued to bother me about it. I had to tell her bosses that I needed her to leave me alone. Other dancers were not so lucky, and many wondered aloud who the young woman bullying them was. Several dancers wondered aloud if Brittany was the result of inbreeding, because of her recessed chin and lack of jaw bone. Several dancers wondered if Brittany, with her stout stature and unshapely frame, harassed attractive dancers out of jealous spite. Many more other unfavorable things were whispered about her in the halls and crannies of the Hustler dressing room, from dancers who were at the mercy of Brittany's torment.

Brittany Carollo was in her early twenties while I worked at Hustler. When she wasn't harassing dancers who she didn't like, she spent much of her work shift sitting at the hookah bar, smoking flavored tobacco. While working at Hustler, I found Brittany's resume on the internet, to see that she had experience working for progressive organizations, such as Planned Parenthood. It amazed me that she would go from Planned Parenthood to managing a place like Hustler where sexual assault and worker exploitation is prevalent. In an industry dominated by male staff and management, it was abnormal to have Brittany working in her position, even more because of her age.

Many dancers hypothesized that Brittany must have been related to someone powerful or had a relationship with someone in charge. Whatever kind of connection Brittany has, I never saw her exercise power to protect the vulnerable, exploited, assaulted or oppressed as it was happening all around her. In 2013, she was a registered republican.

Brittany was present during my termination, when I was told that part of the reason I was being fired was for offering my lawyer's contact information to workers who were having their rights violated. It was her job to sit and stare at me, as a witness.

Brittany can be found on facebook under the name "Brittany Rose." Her facebook contains quotes from Marilyn Monroe, Chuck Palahnuik and Lana Del Rey.

Leo Mena

In Madison Mainwaring's Vice magazine article about me, she begins:

"During a ten-hour shift at work this past spring, Brandi Campbell was getting into an elevator when her manager grabbed her and pulled her close to his body. He wanted to know why she hadn't replied to his multiple requests to take her out for sushi. This wasn't the first time Campbell's boss had been inappropriate with her. In the eight months that she'd worked for him, he had habitually brushed his hands across her thighs and rubbed her shoulders. He had demanded her personal phone number so many times that she'd given in, and now he wouldn't stop calling, even though she had made it clear she wasn't interested."

That manager was named Leo Mena. He is the big, grotesque, ogre-looking fella pictured below. The woman next to him was one of my fellow strippers at Hustler, named Ayumi. It looks like Ayumi was more complacent than me about the dining invitation.

Kimberly K. Moore

Below is a photo of Kimberly K. Moore. She was a stripper at Larry Flynt's Hustler Club during the same time that I was. She was involved in a sexual relationship with a DJ there, named Dustin Chaves. Kimberly couldn't cut it as a dancer, so she switched to being a cocktail waitress. I never tipped DJ Chaves, and Kimberly didn't like it very much that her boyfriend couldn't bully me into giving him my money. Before Hustler and I reached resolution, Kimberly volunteered to testify on Hustler's behalf. She was going to describe how she thought she was an independent contractor while dancing, but an employee while waiting tables. Kimberly is not good at understanding the Economic Realities test, so thoughts about nuance in employment situations don't happen inside of her head. She is a scab.

Douchebag: Blake Gutierrez

This guy calls himself "the sand man" and threatened to kill me for my Larry Flynt's Hustler Club lawsuit activity.

Cash James: An Exploitative Pimp's Spawn

This is a photo of a child named Cash James and his dad, Ralph James. Cash directly benefits from misogynist sexual assault and worker exploitation. Ralph James is a manager at Larry Flynt's Hustler Club in Las Vegas, Nevada. Cash's dad, Ralph, makes a lot of Cash, in order to send Cash to private Montessori schooling and give him a swanky Las Vegas upbringing.

During my time at Hustler, I regularly witnessed women being sexually assaulted by customers and staff. Ralph didn't do much about it, even though he knew about most of it. Sometimes Ralph would withhold my money from me for hours if I protested sexual assault. Sometimes Ralph would passive-aggressively talk about misclassification if I was stuck in an elevator with him. For a long time before Hustler fired me, Ralph knew that I was interested in suing the club. Several people tipped him off, and he was devising a way to get rid of me without making it look so obvious what he was doing.

Sometimes when the offspring of oppressive political leaders get negative media attention, people think the offspring doesn't deserve it. I disagree, and I believe that the offspring should not be let off the hook.

It is likely that Cash James will grow to be an exploitative misogynist just like his dad, Ralph. Anything less than aggressively calling out Ralph's behavior when he grows up will not be enough on Cash's behalf.

Why It's Important to Give Clubs the Benefit of Doubt

When I start a new job at a strip club, I don't always know if they will classify correctly. There is a possibility that a club will accurately classify me as an employee and recognize my rights. There is also the possibility that a club will not enforce rules consistent with employee status, and that I will have so many freedoms within a club that I truly am an independent contractor. The latter is almost never the case, but it's not impossible.

It's important to give clubs the benefit of doubt that they will do the right thing, and classify correctly. It's also important to understand all of the factors in the Economic Realities test, to know when misclassification is occurring. I'm no ideologue when it comes to strip club classification. I just want them to do the right thing when it comes to worker rights.

VCG: Crushing Them with Critical Mass

It's much more difficult to find other plaintiffs to start a class action, than it is to do an individual lawsuit. That being said, the VCG class action is going great and I am so happy to have joined it.

One of the greatest obstacles with suing strip clubs are lying, backstabbing fellow strippers who will attempt to sabotage a case. Arbitration serves this purpose well. However, with the VCG class action, there are so many on board and support for fellow dancers is much easier. It will be great to see where it goes.

Stage Skills

Sometimes during legal proceedings, the opposing side will bring in a dancer with a marginal amount of talent, and have her describe to the judge or arbitrator how her job requires skill. Sometimes, this will result in a demonstration of her skill. When the opposing side states that these skills are profitable or required for the job, they are lying. There are, however, a set of stage behaviors that are much more profitable than pole acrobatics, hoola hooping or other hobbies. Below is a list of things I have witnessed which are more profitable on stage. I don't engage in this behavior myself, and sometimes that results in termination after customers complain that I am rude:

-- Bringing a second stripper on stage and pretending to give her oral sex

-- Rubbing one's breasts in customers ugly disgusting faces

-- Pulling female customers up on stage and dry humping them

-- Pulling female customers up on stage and removing their clothes while their boyfriends and husbands watch

-- Getting down on all fours in doggy style sex positions

-- Fingering oneself

-- Sitting on customer's faces while they are seated at the stage

-- Removing dollars from customer's bodies with one's mouth