NLRB Orders Reinstatement for Exotic Dancer Post Wilcox Return

An Oregon strip club must rehire a dancer and provide her back pay after the National Labor Relations Board found it committed numerous violations of federal labor law in 2024.

The ruling is the board’s first published decision since Gwynne Wilcox was temporarily reinstated by a D.C. federal judge earlier this month. Wilcox was fired by President Donald Trump in January and is contending that her removal was unlawful.

Magic Tavern in Portland, Ore. unlawfully fired a dancer, known as Peach, after she engaged in legally protected activity and got violent with the dancers when they walked out on strike, the board held Friday.

The Magic Tavern findings were issued as a default ruling because the club failed to file a response to the complaint.

The tavern’s 29 exotic dancers voted to unionize with the Actors’ Equity Association in September 2023, joining another group of strippers at a bar in Los Angeles in organizing over safety concerns and other working conditions.

Management fired Peach in March 2024 and prohibited other employees from publicly criticizing the club. The tavern’s owners also became violent when unionized employees walked off on strike in July 2024, the board found.

Benjamin Donahue, the club’s majority owner, pushed picketers, threw picket signs, and launched fireworks in the direction of striking employees, the decision said.

The labor board ordered Magic Tavern to rehire Peach with back pay and cease all other unlawful activity.

The case is Dumbo 301 LLC d/b/a Magic Tavern, N.L.R.B., No. 19-CA-322582, 3/21/25.