Even if the stripper cannot negotiate for the benefits provided at the moment, they can always bring together workers for a form of health insurance group purchase, as restaurant workers have modeled it, Hudek said.
There is a great need for affordable health insurance among the stripper, which experience pain and an accumulation of stress by walking for hours in heels, going on stage several times a night and by performing athletic cascades, said Lizzy Lavender, who dances at Dream Girls. Currently, many dancers pay from their pocket for chiropractic care, massage and physiotherapy.
“But it is difficult for our body, and we are exposed to so many different people, so that we can easily fall ill,” said Lavender. “We would like the guild to create a fund with lower membership fees, and in this way you may have insurance for a very low rate so that people who do not qualify for medical aid … We would have this option.”
