Sex Worker Unionisation examines the challenges and opportunities offered by unionisation for Sex Workers. Exploring unionisation projects undertaken by Sex Workers in most major economies, this ground-breaking study shows how sex-workers have collectively sought to control and organise their work and working lives by co-determining the wage-effort with their de facto employers. It highlights the range of significant obstacles that have impeded their progress, including owner hostility, state regulation and the sway of radical feminism that is present in many unions. Outlining a more efficacious model for sex worker unionisation based upon combining occupation unionism and social movement unionism, this pioneering and controversial new book offers an important study of business organization in a unique industry.

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Reviews

“Worthwhile reading for anyone interested in the labour rights and political mobilization of sexual service providers, as well as the unionization of self-employed, precarious or marginalized workers more broadly. It provides a brief and concise overview of organizations, unions and pressure groups representing sexual service providers … . The book takes its readers to countries including the US, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Germany and the Netherlands, and explores the successes and failures of unionization efforts in these countries.” (Gregor Gall, Work, Employment and Society, Vol. 32 (05), October, 2018)

“Gall (Univ. of Bradford, UK) provides examples, challenges, and economicpossibilities of efforts to unionize sex workers throughout the globe. Gall’s academic book is based on interviews with union organizers and research focusing on leading industrial relations and economics journals. … it did succeed at presenting women as laborers trying to make changes in their occupational environment. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals.” (G. E. Kaupins, Choice, Vol. 54 (3), November, 2016)

Authors and Affiliations

University of Bradford School of Management, UK

Gregor Gall

About the author

Gregor Gall is Professor of Industrial Relations at University of Bradford School of Management, UK. He has authored and edited more than fifteen books on union and industrial relations including Sex Worker Union Organizing: An International Study (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006)

Bibliographic Information

Book Title: Sex Worker Unionization
Book Subtitle: Global Developments, Challenges and Possibilities
Authors: Gregor Gall
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137320148
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London
eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-137-32013-1Published: 29 February 2016
eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-32014-8Published: 08 April 2016
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: VII, 226
Topics: Sociology of Work, Organization, Business Strategy/Leadership, Sociology, general, Behavioral/Experimental Economics, Industrial Organization

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Table of contents (9 chapters)

Front Matter

Back Matter

About this book