Gregor Gall’s monograph, Sex Worker Unionization, is better than his previous book on this topic but ultimately disappoints. Rather than focusing on the astonishing and innovative ways that sex workers and other gig economy workers have organized to wield their collective power, Gall criticizes these often-marginalized workers for not following the established procedures of industrial relations. The author presents research on sex workers and sex worker unions (mostly) in the Global North, identifying obstacles to cooperation with established labor unions and outlining their conflicting objectives. This rich data documents decades of struggles by sex workers individually and jointly for state recognition of their grievances as workers, citizens, and human beings. Gall is particularly effective at showing the limits of unionization in the few industrialized nations that have decriminalized prostitution in whole or in part. In anticipation of legalization in 2002, officials of Ver.di, Germany’s Unified Service Sector Union, expanded...
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