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

Suhauna Hussain March 26, 2024

After strippers at Star Garden, a topless dive bar in North Hollywood, won the right to unionize

last year union

, the club’s owner

promised agreed

to reopen the club, hire back dancers he had fired,

and run the club as it had been before the labor dispute.bargain negotiate a contractwith the new union.

Now,

however,

the National Labor Relations Board has issued a complaint

checking that complaint is the right term to use for what the board issued?

against

Star Garden the club,

alleging

the club

it failed

to fully follow through and violatedfullyuphold its end of the deal, violating

the terms of a May 2023 settlement it reached with Actors Equity Assn., the union representing the group of about a dozen dancers

negotiating for better pay and working conditions

.

The

findingsmotionissued by the regional director of a Los Angeles office of the federal labor board,

came after

union

lawyers

forActors Equity

provided information showing that when the club reopened last year, it substantially changed

how it operates,business practices and operating hours,

said Andrea F. Hoeschen, general counsel for Actors Equity Assn.

The club,

which

used to be open every day, now

it

opens only

just

three days a week with limited hours and

it

implemented a new cover charge, Hoeschen said.

and

It also cut back the number of

employs very few

dancers

who perform,per shift

inflated drink prices and

stopped acceptingrefuses to accept

cash, Hoeschen added.

said.

“Simply putting out an open sign but running your business vastly different than you used to is vastly not compliant with the settlement terms,” Hoeschen said.

Star Garden’s owner has issued dozens of write-ups to dancers, requires six-feet-away lap dances, and turns away customers for ‘bad vibes,’

In interviews, three dancers said that

in interviews. how they’re allowed to work had also changed.

“Before, we were allowed to actually give a lap dance,” said a Star Garden dancer who asked to be identified only by her stage name, May. “We could sit on their lap and engage with a customer in a way that’s normal in most clubs. 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.

“We intend

to

vigorously oppose this overreach by the board,” attorney Josiah R. Jenkins said.

of firm Bartzo Zankel Bunzel Miller, which represents Kazaryan.

In a March 19 filing to the NLRB, attorneys representing Star Garden argued that dancers have refused to perform lap dances, depriving the club of income.

“Dancers have engaged in insubordination and egregious violations of the clubs rules, all aimed toward the end of shutting the business down,” the filing read.

In issuing the complaint against the club, the NLRB’s regional director in Los AngelesThe Los Angeles region of the NLRB

is asking the federal board to order Star Garden to reopen

as under the terms laid out in the settlement agreement properly

, offer dancers compensation for financial

harm 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.

Star Garden reopened in August, after a 15-month tussle during which club management fired more than a dozen dancers, contested the results of a union election held by

its

strippers, filed for bankruptcy and closed its doors.

Soon after Star Garden reopened, dancers told The Times that drink prices had ratcheted up, the bar had gone cashless and removed its ATM and management was discouraging customers from tipping with cash. 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.

Union attorneys filed multiple unfair labor practice charges with the NLRB alleging club owners were engaging in bad faith bargaining and

had interfered with employees ability to earn cash tips;took

arbitrarily disciplining

actions against

employees,

among other claims.that contradicted longstanding policies; and at times refusing entry or charging higher fees to union supporters.

On Dec. 7, dancers gathered to protest outside Star Garden. The nighttime rally marked the beginning of a three-day unfair labor practice strike.

In response to a reporter’s request for comment in December on allegations made by dancers and union leadership, An Nguyen Ruda, an

other

attorney representing

Kazaryan, deniedStar Garden

denied

the club

he had violated the terms of the settlement.

“We vigorously disagree,” Ruda said in an email. “We have asked the dancers to do simple things like respect a schedule, work on work time; not to try to siphon customers away during work time; respect ABC laws. These are all actions which we stand by.”

An Ruda, an attorney representing Kazaryan,

Ruda also represents management at the Los Angeles Times in union contract negotiations.