Workers

In These Times - Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed a bill into law last week described as ​“creating safer working conditions in adult entertainment establishments” and known popularly as the Strippers’ Bill of Rights.“It’s pretty simple why we are passing this bill,” Inslee declared when he signed SB 6105. ​“These are working folks, and working people deserve safety in the environment in which they work.”It may seem simple, but the bill’s passage marks the culmination of years of hard work from Strippers Are Workers, a dancer-led advocacy group that has been fighting to pass industry-specific labor legislation since 2018. It’s been a long, difficult road with several significant setbacks; a similar version of the bill floated in 2023 was nixed by conservative House Democrats who shied away from its language around alcohol legalization (at the time, Washington was the only state in the nation that banned alcohol entirely from strip clubs and other adult entertainment venues).