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.

“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)

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)