The sex workers at Sheri’s Ranch are pressing to become the first brothel in the United States to unionize, filing a petition with the National Labor Relations Board under the name United Brothel Workers and asking the Communications Workers of America to represent them. The effort, led by a majority of the brothel’s workers, is taking shape around the terms of a December independent-contractor agreement that workers say would transfer lasting control of their images and intellectual property to the business.
One of the organizing workers, who spoke to the Associated Press under the stage name Jupiter Jetson and asked that her legal name not be used for fear of harassment, said the campaign reflects ordinary workplace demands. “We want the same things that any other worker wants. We want a safe and respectful workplace,” Jetson said. She said the drive was spurred by the new contract, which she said would let Sheri’s Ranch use the women’s likeness without permission, including after they no longer work there.
Jetson described what she saw as the practical risks of the agreement, saying, “This is how you end up the face of a Japanese lubricant company without ever having signed a document,” and, “This is how you end up finding yourself on a website offering AI companionship without ever seeing a penny.” In addition to the image-and-IP dispute, workers said they want a clearer say in workplace rules and wages.
Sheri’s Ranch is in Pahrump, about an hour’s drive from Las Vegas in Clark County, where prostitution is not legal. Nevada allows licensed brothels to operate in 10 rural counties, and the AP reported that prostitution at those licensed brothels is legal in multiple counties. Jetson and other organizers said the unionization drive aims to change how work is structured inside that legal framework.
Workers also argued that the December deal changed the balance of power in ways that could affect how easily they leave. Another worker, who goes by the stage name Molly Wylder and also asked that her legal name not be used, said the terms would make it harder for courtesans to leave the industry and pursue other opportunities. “It was never my plan to stay forever,” Wylder said, adding that she views sex work as a temporary job to help pay student loans.
According to the AP, the contract was viewed by the news organization and includes language giving the brothel an “irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free, non-exclusive license” to distribute the women’s material. Workers said they raised concerns with management and were told to sign or leave. Jetson said some signed under duress and that the dispute remains ongoing; the brothel’s marketing and communications director, Jeremy Lemur, did not respond to questions about the workers’ concerns.
Jetson also said Sheri’s Ranch fired her and two others after learning about the union effort. She said the Communications Workers of America is fighting for them to be rehired. Lemur did respond indirectly, telling the AP by email that Sheri’s Ranch respects the right of workers “to ‘express their views on workplace structure.’” Lemur also said the business’s focus is on providing a “safe, lawful and professionally managed environment.”
The fight may turn on a longstanding legal question in Nevada sex work: whether workers are independent contractors or employees. Barb Brents, described by the AP as an expert on Nevada’s sex industry and a retired professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said independent contractors do not receive as many legal protections as employees, though workers may have more freedoms. Lemur said the independent-contractor status is fundamental to workers’ autonomy, while the women said they are treated like employees.
The AP reported that workers said they are given schedules, cannot work from home, and are required to charge a minimum of $1,000 per hour. The women also said Sheri’s Ranch gets 50% of what they earn. They said they want the right to negotiate over conditions including their dress code, and that they were told they can only wear denim shorts, not pants. Workers also said they want changes to wage terms and, Wylder said, health insurance, which they say they do not receive.
The AP also reported broader context from other sex-industry organizing efforts. It said that in Los Angeles, dancers at the topless bar Star Garden became the only unionized group of strippers in the U.S., and that San Francisco’s The Lusty Lady helped pioneer unionization when its workers unionized in 1997, though the venue is now closed. Brents said the Sheri Ranch effort stands out in a stigmatized industry where workers historically have kept quiet. “It’s pretty amazing and heartening to see so many sex workers standing up for their rights,” she said.
The AP reported that the union process could take weeks, but that Sheri’s Ranch could choose to recognize the Communications Workers of America and begin negotiating a new contract immediately, according to union attorneys. CWA state president Marc Ellis told the AP that organizing is tied to basic workplace rights, saying, “All workers are guaranteed certain human decencies and dignities, and the right to organize is one of those.”