Keynote presentation at COPE Local 343 Annual General Meeting 2016 - by Kate Zen (Migrant Sex Workers Project) 6/4/2016

1. +
Organizing for Labour
Rights in Informal Sectors
Global Case Studies
and the Canadian Context
Presented by Kate Zen (Migrant Sex Workers Project)
June 4, 2016 | COPE Local343 Annual General Meeting 2016

2. +
Don’t believe me?
Take a look at the workers organizing…

3. +
65,000 sex workers in one Indian union
Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC) - West Bengal, India

4. + New Zealand’s occupational handbook
includes sex work…

5. + Why labour rights are needed
for the public good…
 Reduces transmission rates of HIV/AIDS (World Health Org & UNAIDS)
 Sonagachi Project, India – study 2004
 Cambodia peer health outreach, LGBTQ youth in Chicago & NYC
Collective bargaining: empowering worker negotiation with clients
for condom use, fair wages, and safe working conditions.
 Reduces violence against sex workers & all members of society
 Sex workers are afraid to report crimes against them to police.
 Sex workers are often the first targeted by violent criminals, so sharing
information would make everyone safer.
 Reduces workplace abuse & violence, including sex trafficking of
migrants and other vulnerable groups: labour rights and labour
organizing are only possible when sex work is treated as work, not
as a crime.

6. +
VIDEO:
http://hub.witness.org/en/upload/sangram-sex-worker-organizing-india

7. + The harms of criminalization
Sex workers are human beings, entitled to full Charter human rights.
Criminals are second class citizens.
CHINA – Police violence and extortion of sex workers.
Hundreds arrested and publicly shamed in
2014 Dongguan “sweep.”

8. +
Police abuse of sex workers
…according to global reports from youth in Chicago to trans street workers in
Central Asia to missing and murdered indigenous women in Canada
• Beatings, ill treatment, and torture in custody
• Arbitrary arrest and detention
• Two-year “reeducation camps” without trial
• Extortion, undercover bribery & blackmail
• Impunity for police; Public shaming for sex workers and their families
• Negligence to pursue justice when sex workers are victims of crime
• Condoms used as evidence of prostitution
• Forced testing without informed consent or privacy
• No referrals to social or health services
Human Rights Watch
China 2013

9. + Cambodia:
harms of U.S. anti-trafficking regime
 2008 Cambodia anti-trafficking laws against
“solicitation” and “procurement” used over-
broadly by police to arrest, imprison, and
abuse Cambodian sex workers, including
beatings and detention at Prey Speu Social
Affairs Center: a torture site for sex workers,
beggars, drug users, and homeless people,
including children. Advocacy and outreach
by sex worker groups also criminalized
under these laws.
“Off the Streets:
Arbitrary Detention and Other
Abuses against Sex Workers in
Cambodia”
(Human Rights Watch, 2010)
“Police abuse sex workers with impunity. Sex
workers told Human Rights Watch that police
officers beat them with their fists, sticks, wooden
handles, and electric shock batons. In several
instances, police officers raped sex workers while
they were in police detention. Every sex worker
that Human Rights Watch spoke to had to pay
bribes or had money stolen from them by police
officers.” At least three people, and possibly
more, were beaten to death by guards at Prey
Speu between 2006 and 2008, a detention center
for sex workers, drug users, street children, and
homeless people.

10. + “We Are Human Beings, Not Animals”
Phnom Penh, Cambodia, June 4, 2008. Over
200 Cambodian sex workers protested against
a police crackdown on trafficking and
prostitution, in which many sex workers were
physically and sexually abused in custody.

11. +
Garment Workers & Sex Workers:
Low-Wage Women Workers Unite
Video:
https://news.vice.com/video/the-high-cost-
of-cheap-clothes

12. +

13. +
INDIA’S SEX WORKER
LABOUR ORGANIZING: 65,000
strong
1. Community-led sex worker organizing drastically lowered
HIV / AIDS rates in Sonagachi District and West Bengal.
2. Set standard prices for workers across the union and
mandated use of condoms. Inspection of clean, safe working
conditions, and fair wages for all workers.
3. Eliminated presence of child sex workers under 18 years of
age. Created sustainable help for the impoverished children.
4. Created Usha Multipurpose Cooperative Bank, the largest
and most successful cooperative bank in West Bengal,
democratically led by sex workers and former sex workers
saving together, investing in educational programming for
their children, plus career training and social networks for
retiring and retired sex workers.
5. Pushed back against rampant police violence.
Tactical Tech human rights research on
police violence against sex workers, with
data collected by community-led
organizations: DMSC (India) and
Women’s Network for Unity(Cambodia)

14. +
CHOOSE:
… or Labour Organizing?
Police Violence, or…

15. +
Police Officer Daniel Holtzclaw, sexual predator
against poor black women, most of whom were sex
workers and drug users. (2015)
Police brutality against indigenous women and children in
British Columbia, many of whom were trading sex for
survival. (Human Rights Watch, 2013)
Home Front

16. +
Migrant Sex Workers
Deported after trafficking “rescue raid”
Over 95% of Chinese migrant sex
workers interviewed in Toronto and
Vancouver said they would not call
the police even in the case of an
emergency.
Police share info with CBSA in violation of
Toronto’s “Sanctuary City” policy.
Report: http://swanvancouver.ca/wp-
content/uploads/2015/05/Chinese-sex-workers-in-
Toronto-amp-Vancouver-Ziteng-SWAN-amp-
ACSA.pdf
ACCESS JUSTICE WITHOUT FEAR

17. +
Canadian Context:
Bedford v. Canada and Bill C36
December 2013, Supreme Court unanimously ( 9 – 0 ) struck down all laws
criminalization sex work, stating that they are overbroad, endangering sex
workers, and violating Canadian Charter Human Rights.
 Communication for the purposes of prostituion
 Keeping a bawdy house (brothel)
 Profiting from the avails of prostitution
Under Harper, a “public consultation” was called to assess community
attitudes around sex work, in which anti-sex-work advocates allegedly “won”
by a very narrow margin. This led to the passing of Bill C-36 “Protection of
Communities and Exploited Peoples Act,” which reverses the Supreme Court
decision, and exacerbates many of the existing laws.

18. +
FALSE: “Punishing the Client”
why the Nordic Model fails to protect sex workers
 Does not decrease number of sex workers, but invisibilizes
street-based workers, pushing them into discreet online sites.
 Sex workers are punished in Family Court, losing custody of
their children, even if their ex-spouse is physically abusive.
 #JusticeforJasmine – murdered Swedish sex worker activist
 Sex workers are still stigmatized in society, and still targeted by
violent predators posing as clients, who become an increasing
portion of the client base.
 Does not address workers’ rights, their relationship to
management / bosses, health or occupational safety, parental
leave or vacations, retirement or long-term security.

19. +
Labour rights & de-stigmatization
The legislation that would really help sex workers
 Policing – Vancouver’s non-enforcement policy
 Municipal licensing
 Existing licenses: strip clubs, body rub, massage parlors, steam baths,
dating services, health enhancement centres
 Prohibitive licensing fees and restrictions = strip clubs
 Individual escort licensing in Edmonton
 Business licenses for establishments consisting of more than one
sex worker
 “Sanctuary City” – no reporting to immigration / CBSA
 Business hours
 Zoning laws
 Advertising by-laws
 DISCRETION and right to privacy
 Licensing restrictions on those with criminal record
Pivot Legal Society: “Beyond Decriminalization: A New Framework for Law Reform”

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 Employment and Labour law
 Sex workers as employees and independent contractors
 Hiring practices, age of workers
 Employment contracts
 Control over services provided
 Termination of employment
 Financial arrangements and wage structure
 Wage protections, hours of work, overtime, statutory holidays,
vaction time and sick days
 Work-related supplies, expenses and clothing, training
 Income tax law, income assistance, and employment insurance
 Work search/employment related requirement
 Declaring income
 Company law: sole proprietorship, partnerships, corporations,
cooperatives, housing cooperatives
Labour rights & de-stigmatization
The legislation that would really help sex workers

21. +
 Workers’ compensation & occupational health and safety
 Safe workplaces and violence prevention
 Drug and alcohol use in the workplace
 Accidents on the job – compensation and insurance
 Health testing
 Condom use and “wilful misconduct’ (Nevada v. New Zealand
approach) Disclosure of HIV status
 Mandatory disease testing (Greece, Indonesia)
 Human rights and discrimination
 Discrimination based on source of income: housing
 Sexual harassment by employers and clients
 Family law
 Child custody, access and guardianship
 Working out of family home and “parental ability”
Labour rights & de-stigmatization
The legislation that would really help sex workers

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 Sex workers operating as a collective
 Formal collective arrangements
 Employment benefits and protections for sex workers
 Sex workers as independent contractors
 Policies for precarious contract workers
 Unionization?
 Wages, certification, union structure, strikes and picketing
 Representation – who will represent sex workers?
 Immigration
 Immigration and Refugee Protection Act – definitions of trafficking
 Deportation, detention, and further marginalization of migrant sex
workers
Labour rights & de-stigmatization
The legislation that would really help sex workers

23. +
Gaps in Labour Protections
 Immigrant workers
 Live-in Care workers
 Immigration status tied to contracts
 Temporary foreign workers
 Seasonal agricultural workers
 Lack or protection for injured workers
 No recourse for stolen wages or employer abuse
 Sexual exploitation by employers in farm work
 Recruitment fees, debt, and withholding passports
 Indigenous people in sex trades; homeless, disabled, single
mothers, and other precarious workers
 Risks and benefits of informal sector work
 Legalization does not always help people on margins
 Ex. Marajuana; Red light district in Amsterdam; Las Vegas
DECRIMINALISATION ≠ LEGALISATION

24. +
Informal Workers Rights?
Frontier of new labour organizing
 Lessons from National Domestic Workers Alliance and WIEGO
(Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and Organizing)
 Organizing home care workers, nannies, waste-pickers, and street
vendors in Africa, Latin America, and Asia
 Lessons from informal sector organizing in the new economy
 Growing number of freelance and contract workers outside
“factory model” of labour organizing
 Freelancers Union? Other models for collectivization, labour regulation /
dispute mediation, and insurance?
 Human right to decriminalized informal sector work?
 Freedom to work informally with safety and dignity?
 Basic income?
 LEAP Manifesto - NDP