After unionized strippers accused club owner of violating deal, federal labor board intervenes

Katherine Shindle, president of Actors’ Equity Assn., speaks at a Dec. 7 protest outside North Hollywood bar Star Garden. After strippers at Star Garden, a topless dive bar in North Hollywood, won the right to unionize last year, the club’s owner agreed to reopen the club, hire back dancers he had fired, and run the club as it had been before the labor dispute. Now we can’t touch a customer literally at all.” Attorneys representing Star Garden’s owner, Stepan K. Kazaryan, have repeatedly denied that the club has violated terms of the settlement. In issuing the complaint against the club, the NLRB’s regional director in Los Angeles is asking the federal board to order Star Garden to reopen as under the terms laid out in the settlement agreement, offer dancers compensation for financial losses they may have incurred, physically post a notice of employees’ rights and have a representative of Star Garden read the notice at a meeting with the workers. Dancers accused Star Garden management of introducing arbitrary rules and implementing high drink prices and cover fees in bad faith in an effort to deter customers, demoralize dancers and weaken resolve in contract negotiations.