NYT: Getting the shop to respect her gender identity motivated her to vote to unionize

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/24/business/sex-shop-workers-welcome-the-protections-of-a-retail-union.html



Massima Desire, a Babeland employee, said getting the shop to respect her gender identity motivated her to vote to unionize. Credit Misha Friedman for The New York Times


By RACHEL ABRAMSMAY 23, 2016

One of the country’s largest retail unions represents workers in department stores, grocery stores and bakeries.

Now, it has a new category: sex shop workers.

Last week, 25 employees of Babeland, an adult toy store with three locations in New York City, voted to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, the group said on Monday. The move, workers said, would help them address a number of wage and training issues, as well as some concerns related more specifically to the nature of adult retail work and to a handful of transgender employees.

“This is the only adult sex shop that is organized,” Stuart Appelbaum, the president of the retail union, said in an interview on Monday. “And I think that’s significant.”

FULL story at link.


Phoenix Casino, a Babeland employee for two years who identifies as transgender, said employees at the store sometimes are asked invasive questions by customers. Credit Misha Friedman for The New York Times

[Agnosticsherbet]

1. My stand is that workers are workers and they need protection from management,

getting the best wages they can, and protection from those who exploit their labor.

[silvershadow]

2. k&R