August 21, 2006 | The Biz

The porn star union?

Plumbers, factory workers, teachers and porn stars. Which of these things is not like the other? If you ask Tom Judson, formerly known as adult performer Gus Mattox, he'll tell you it's porn stars. The reason? While many professionals and tradesmen are union workers, porn stars, he says, will never wear the union label.

In the August edition of "Adult Entertainment," his monthly column for Unzipped Magazine, Judson waxes poetic on the plausibility or, rather, the implausibility, of organizing adult film stars into a union.

He says that labor is organized for two purposes: to earn fair wages for members, and to ensure safe working conditions within an industry.

Within porn, however, both objectives are fruitless endeavors. Safety on a porn set is contradictory -- aside from requiring condom use, which all the major studios already do -- and regulating wages is next to impossible when performers are paid "per scene."

"What if the performer appears in a solo jackoff scene? Or is in the background in a large orgy?" writes Judson. "How about if a two-way evolves into a larger group after the initial cumshots? Should the first couple get paid for one or for two scenes? And what if a guy is unable to cum? Should there be a penalty? Or is there a bonus if he comes twice?"

Of course, the biggest obstacle to unionizing gay porn stars, Judson says, is the prospect of union dues. "Men going into porn don’t think about it as a lifelong career," he writes. "Most young men (and they are mostly young) aren’t thinking past the end of the day, much less 5 or 6 years down the road. Will they be willing to part with $500 of their $1000 fee for union initiation if they think this movie will be their first and last?"

"It ain't gonna fly," he concludes. While some porn bosses deserve a spanking for their treatment of performers, ultimately doing porn is a choice, and performers must make that choice wisely. "Did I work for these people when I was still making movies?" Judson says of unfair production companies. "Yup. Was anybody holding a gun to my head? Not that I ever noticed."

Sounds like just about any other freelance job out there -- except for the whole having sex thing.

• Norman Rae [TomJudson.com]