LOS ANGELES (KNX) — A group of exotic dancers will stage a protest Friday evening outside a topless bar in North Hollywood. Participants are protesting what they’ve described as unsafe working conditions at the bar, according to an organizer, Antonia Crane, who spoke with KNX.
A dancer known as Velveeta told KNX that participating dancers were specifically responding to the firing of two colleagues from the bar — one, she said, was termianted after she intervened to stop a customer from filming another dancer on stage; another after complaining about customers lingering in the bar after 2 a.m.
"After two, we have to come out into the bar in our street clothes to wrap up," Velveeta said. "We can't be exposed to having our real life identities exposed to customers like that."
Velveeta further explained the dancer fired for stopping a customer from filming a colleague was reprimanded by management, prior to her termination, for getting club security involved without their approval.
"We cannot call security over if we have an active issue with a customer," she said. "We have to go through management." She said this was not the norm at other clubs where she worked in the past, and that the practice "makes working in a strip club very precarious."
"Things can happen on the turn of a dime," she explained, describing instances of alleged assault that occurred when dancers were performing routine lap dances. "All of a sudden, you have contact," she said. "If you cannot pull yourself away and call security over to immediately get that customer and shut him down, the situation can become dangerous fast."
Dancers are planning to present club managers with a petition to resolve safety concerns.
Should management refuse to meet the group’s demands, organizers said dancers are prepared to stage a walkout and protest at 6:30 p.m. Crane confirmed they will convene at the Carl’s Jr. restaurant across the street from the club.
Picketing will be canceled if management acquiesces to the group’s requests, Crane said.
This is a developing story.
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