Is organizing a union for sex workers good or bad? Unions are known to protect laborers from exploitation by their employers. Although free-market ideologues often criticize unionism, it seems agreeable among the public that function of unions in today's compromised form of capitalist society is to reconcile individual right to economic liberty and individual right to standard of living. In case of forming an union for sex workers, specifically prostitutes, an issue arises and takes off to a different level, as to whether prostitution is a legitimate form of business and whether forming unions for sex workers is good.
If society were to acknowledge prostitution as a legitimate form of business, organizing a union for sex workers would be necessary. Prostitution has long been condemned by society due to political, social, and cultural reasons, and therefore their working conditions have often been neglected and/or cared less, for such commercial sex activities are "sinful" or "wrong" to begin with. Thus, those who happen to work in the industry need a legitimate means to negotiate to prevent exploitation by their employers. However, some activists do not view prostitution as an acceptable business practice. They do not regard prostitution as a legitimate commercial practice because prostitution itself is a form of exploitation in their logic. Since the practice is self-exploitative, organizing unions for sex workers is considered merely a way to legitimize prostitution per se.
This is certainly a complex case. But, given prostitution will always exist whether legal or not, what can we do to help protect rights of sex workers?
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