Britain and Continental Europe

Abstract

Aside from Germany and the Netherlands, the major development in sex-worker unionization in Europe has taken place in Britain. However, compared with those developments in those two aforementioned countries, this development in Britain has concerned exotic dancers rather than prostitutes. Following from examining this, the next most significant developments have occurred in France and Spain. Developments in sex-worker unionization in a number of other countries are also considered in this chapter. Within the economic and political dominance of neo-liberalism in Europe, it is still the case that there are significant national differences so that coordinated market economies and some vestiges of social democracy remain. Divergence also exists in how sex work is regulated in law and public policy. Consequently, there are few common transnational contextual features at the nation-state level, which helps explain the presence or absence of sex-worker unionization projects throughout Europe. Where transnational features can be identified, they concern the influence of the sex-work discourse and the agency of small group of sex worker activists. This chapter begins by examining developments in Britain mainly in regard to exotic dancers being unionized through the GMB and Equity unions.