For Sam, a Montreal stripper, the sex industry was a place to turn to when other jobs weren’t viable.
“I started sex work because I’m chronically ill and I could no longer hold a 9 to 5,” they said.
“Sex work gave me the autonomy to actually make money to survive, to be able to have space to take care of my body and take breaks when I need to.”
Sam, whose name has been changed to preserve their anonymity, is one of many sex workers who say they benefit from their industry’s work structure.
In Montreal, strippers, massage parlour workers and other sex workers don’t tend to earn a salary, but are instead paid directly by clients for lap dances, massages and sometimes for sexual acts.
For many sex workers who spoke to The Gazette, the model offers them a level of flexibility they require.
But Sam’s position runs counter to that of the Comité autonome du travail du sexe (CATS), the Montreal organization that held last Saturday’s sex workers’ strike during the Formula One weekend.
Key among the group’s demands was that the industry abandon its current pay structure and offer workers a salary. Organizers called on strip clubs to abolish the “bar service fee,” which strippers pay to access clubs, and argued that an hourly pay would allow access to protections such as paid leave following workplace injuries.
While many backed the strike, the weekend action also revealed something of a rift in Montreal’s sex work community as its members debated how they wanted to be paid.
“If I had to report to somebody about hours or if I had to go through screening processes (to be hired)… that’s exactly why I was struggling in the first place,” Sam said. “I was so sick and could not work a normal job.”
Nina, whose name has also been changed, said many were “concerned” to see CATS “speaking in our names.”
“We did not feel like we had given them this mission,” she said.
Nina, also a stripper, and Sam joined Pleasers on the Ground, a group formed to oppose the strike and its call to switch to a salary-based pay model.
The group argues the current model allows workers to control their hours and avoid clients they don’t want to interact with. They also say it allows marginalized people — including trans people and immigrants whose legal status doesn’t allow them to work — access to an income.
“Having an official status and being recognized by the government as a sex worker, I find that very dangerous,” said Sarah (not her real name), who also works as a stripper.
If workers earned a salary, “I have a feeling that we’d make less money,” she said. “It’s a dying industry. I don’t see how bosses would be able to pay salaries without taking a cut of the money we make during dances.”
But Monica, a CATS member who supported the strike, said the current pay model forces her to work without pay.
Monica, who works at a massage parlour and whose name has also been changed, said her boss requires her to clean the establishment when she isn’t with clients.
“We’re not paid during that period,” she said.
Instead, she said she’s paid for massages at a rate set by her boss, who keeps 35 per cent of whatever she earns.
Paying an hourly wage would recognize the reality of her work, she said, arguing that her working conditions don’t resemble those of a self-employed person.
“Having a salary would increase protections,” she said, including by offering paid leave.
Francine Tremblay, a Concordia University lecturer who studies the sex industry and worked as a stripper until 1988, initially supported the strike. But in an interview Monday, she had changed her mind, suggesting that CATS hadn’t sought consensus from the people it represents.
“It was a kneejerk reaction” to support the strike, she said.
But Tremblay maintained that she benefited from the salary she earned when she was a stripper. At the time, Montreal strip clubs paid hourly wages, she said.
The salary allowed her financial security, as well as workers’ benefits that now pay for the hearing aids she needs after working almost two decades in noisy venues.
Without “some sort of legal status, what would you do after, when you leave the industry?”
While she said she agreed with CATS that sex workers should earn a salary, Tremblay said she understood why some didn’t agree.
“I totally understand that some (workers) want to remain invisible.”
Both camps support decriminalization
While sex workers debate their pay model, both camps want to see sex work decriminalized.
Under the federal criminal code, sex workers aren’t criminalized for exchanging sex for pay. But their clients, as well as anyone who facilitates their work, are criminalized.
As a result, many operate in a grey zone, with their clients allowed to pay for services including lap dances but considered criminals if caught paying for sexual services.
“Ninety-five per cent of (clients) are really fine, I’ve never had any trouble with them,” Monica said. “But some of them can be dangerous, like any other job.”
The criminality surrounding the sex industry means clients don’t disclose their names, she said. If something goes wrong, even banning them from returning to the massage parlour can be difficult.
“My clients are very nervous to share personal information,” Sarah said, which she said can put her in danger.
“The demand of a majority of sex workers is decriminalization.”
The Gazette attempted to contact the owners of several Montreal strip clubs, but did not receive responses.
I’ve reported for The Gazette since 2024. I love covering a good politics story, but any day I tell Montrealers something new about the world around them feels like a good one. Got a tip for me? Email me at jawilson@postmedia.com
jawilson@postmedia.com
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