Touch One, Touch All: Sex Worker Unionism and Industrial Action in Australia

Sex work is decriminalised in four Australian states and territories, transforming the once-marginal idea of “sex work as real work” into a mainstream political reality. Despite this shift in law and public discourse, there remains a notable gap in academic research on the sex workers who have actively pursued recognition of their labour rights, including through industrial organising, during a time when their work was criminalised. This article addresses that gap by compiling and analysing public records and oral histories of key moments in sex worker industrial organising across Australian jurisdictions. Drawing on mainstream media, archival materials, interview transcripts and social media, the authors highlight the experiences and strategies of sex workers pursuing formal enforcement of labour rights. Such findings reveal a vocal and active history of sex worker labour organising that has been largely overlooked in academic analysis. Importantly, oral histories enrich this narrative by providing nuanced insights and contextualised challenges that are often absent from mainstream documentation.