The Sex Workers’ Union, formed in 2018, is a trade union building collective power among strippers, porn performers, online sex workers and full-service sex workers. SWU has made some impressive landmark wins including workers’ status for strippers, compensation for stolen online content and financial discrimination cases.
Whilst the union has made strides in strip clubs and porn studios, the scope of the union’s power in members’ workplaces is impeded by the criminalisation of prostitution. Full-service sex workers, particularly brothel workers, seeking to unionise their criminalised workplaces do so at great personal risk to their livelihoods and freedom. The decriminalisation of sex work is imperative to sex workers’ ability to unionise and seek their rights as workers and therefore should be of huge importance to trade unionists across the UK.
Workers for Decrim is an affiliation of trade unions and grassroots community groups that support the decriminalisation of sex work. For us solidarity is not just a word. We believe sex work is work and are committed to sex workers’ safety through the strengthening of workers’ power. The following unions and grassroots groups support the decriminalisation of sex work:
ASLEF
Unison NI
RCN
CWU
UCU
GMB
Equity
IWW
Use our draft motion at your union branch or conference and contact rosa@decrimnow.org.uk or for further guidance. We welcome the opportunity to build solidarity by speaking to workers across the trade union movement at branch meetings and union events.
If you have any questions for us, want us to speak at a conference or event, or need help with submitting a motion – don’t hesitate to get in touch via email or using the form below.