Punching In: Vegas Dancers Unionize to ‘Change the Landscape’

Monday morning musings for workplace watchers.

Chippendales Organize for Better Wages | The Chatbot that Designs Your Benefits

Parker Purifoy: The Actors’ Equity Association has made another important breakthrough in nightlife entertainment—the Chippendales dancers in Las Vegas.

The male performers, famous for their strip teases, announced their intention to organize 19 employees last week and filed a representation petition with the National Labor Relations Board.

Equity represents 51,000 professional actors and stage managers on Broadway and recently made inroads with strip club dancers in Portland, Ore. and Los Angeles.

Chippendales dancers Alex Stabler and Freddy Godinez said they turned to unionizing after efforts to improve their wages and working conditions directly with management at failed.

According to them, each performer receives $100 per show, which also includes 15 minutes of time with the guests afterwards in the “Flirt Lounge” and up to 15 hours of rehearsal every week. After each show, audience members are encouraged to pay $35 to have a photo taken with the cast. The dancers only get 50 cents per photo.

The workers also never get tips—which are prohibited in the Rio Hotel and Casino—or sick leave and paid time off. Stabler, who has been a professional performer for 20 years and moved to Las Vegas to work for Cirque du Soleil, said many of the Chippendales don’t have health insurance because they can’t afford it.

“We are internationally recognized and people will treat us like rock stars,” he said. “But they’re so shocked to find out how little we’re paid. The reality is that you can’t be a full-time Chippendales performer and make a living wage.”

Godinez, who has worked on the show for two years and comes from a hotel management and hospitality background, said he began reaching out to unions in October 2023.

“Las Vegas is a really strong union town but I was so confused why we don’t have one for performers here,” he said. “For me, it was a no brainer.”

The dancers and union say they want to set new standards for the nighttime entertainment industry.

“We want to change the landscape of the industry, that’s part of the drive here,” Stabler said. “We have an opportunity not to only make things better for us now at Chippendales, but also for future generations and to start a movement that can make waves around the city.”

Chippendales management didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Chippendales dancers have unionized.

Photographer: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Diego Areas Munhoz: As dockworkers try to halt automation in the ports following a strike that paralyzed imports on the eastern seaboard, there is a different area artificial intelligence may automate to avoid future work stoppages.

Software developer Pactum AI has been hiring its employees using an unusual method recently. Potential new employees don’t get job offers from a person. Instead, they get a link to an AI chatbot.

Job candidates negotiate with a bot over their employment contract’s terms. Do they want more money or more paid time off? Or do they want to trade some of their PTO for increased commuter benefits?

The bot doesn’t know the person’s race, gender, or national origin—all they do is work with the candidate for a contract that is acceptable to both the company and the worker, Martin Rand, Pactum’s CEO, said in an interview.

“It removes this feeling of uneasiness of, you know, wanting to ask a better salary. It’s much more comfortable to negotiate with a bot,” Rand said.

Companies adopting AI tools for human resources tasks do need to be aware of the risks. Federal agencies like the Labor Department and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have warned companies they’re on the lookout for signs of AI discrimination in hiring decisions, including it on their enforcement plans.

Pactum sells Fortune 500 companies—including A.P. Moller - Maersk A/S, part of the maritime alliance the dockworkers were striking against—bots that independently negotiate contracts with suppliers, relieving businesses of having their workers negotiate every single agreement. Rand says that if the company continues to grow, he wants to offer his employment contract negotiation capabilities commercially.

That way, businesses and workers will be able to come up with benefits packages that can better fit employees while saving company funds from going to perks that some don’t necessarily need, Rand said. It could also avoid disruptive strikes given workers could get contracts closer to their choosing, he said.

Would individualized contacts undermine the value unions claim is crucial to the collective bargaining process? Not necessarily, Rand said. Union leaders themselves could use the chat bots to see what their membership values most, he added.

Whether employers or unions will en masse use chat bots to negotiate employment contracts remains to be seen, but as workers begin to bargain for curbs in automation, there seems to be more areas to be taken up by robots than meets the eye.

We’re punching out. Daily Labor Report subscribers please check in for updates during the week, and feel free to reach out to us.