Dutch sex workers are set to fight for better pay and conditions in the country's thriving brothels and sex clubs by setting up the world's first trade union for prostitutes, campaigners said on Wednesday.
The Rode Draad (Red Thread) group, which campaigns for the rights of the country's 20,000 prostitutes, said the initiative was backed by the country's biggest trade union federation.
The Dutch, with a long-standing liberal tradition, lifted a near century-long ban on brothels last year. Prostitution had already largely been above board in a country renowned for its tolerance since the French emperor, Napoleon, legalized it in 1815.
"A trade union is going to be formed. In about a year it should be up and running," Rode Draad spokeswoman Christy ten Broeke said. Campaigners hoped to start recruiting union members from the world's oldest profession by early next year.
Ten Broeke said it would be a world first, although this could not be independently confirmed.
"Nowhere else in the world would sex workers be considered full partners for negotiations and intermediation," she said.
Dutch brothels are regulated and inspected by local authorities and the country's labor laws apply to prostitutes and their employers. Sex workers are also eligible for invalidity or unemployment benefit, according to a government Web site.
Many of the country's prostitutes work in brothels, ranging from ordinary homes to luxurious sex clubs with gilded interiors, outsized beds and jacuzzi bubble baths.
The majority of the country's 2,000 brothels are in and around Amsterdam. Prostitutes also work for telephone escort services or ply their trade on the streets or by posing in windows in Amsterdam's red light district.
Tax breaks
The union will fight to ensure that prostitutes -- who have been required to pay income tax since 1996 -- receive tax breaks on work-related expenses such as clothes, condoms and sex toys.
It will also campaign for greater regulation of an industry estimated to generate almost US$1 billion a year by calling for brothel owners to provide its employees with contracts.
Ten Broeke said that even strike action was a possibility in future.
"I'm not really sure if a strike would be in the interests of the women. Other forms of action would be more appropriate ... but it's always possible," she said.
Dutch prostitutes on average earn just 16 guilders (US$6.70) an hour before tax, she said.
But income can vary enormously between women employed by elite escort services and those on the streets. Some prostitutes work only one day a week while others may work every day.
The country's 1.2-million strong FNV union federation is lending its weight to the initiative by helping campaigners to set up the new union, which is as yet unnamed.
Once it is up and running, it will become an affiliate of the FNV.
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