Several prominent California politicians, including the lieutenant governor of California, signed a letter urging Taylor Swift to cancel her concerts in Los Angeles in solidarity with striking hotel workers.
“Speak Now!” they wrote, in a reference to Swift’s 2010 album. “Stand with hotel workers and postpone your concerts.”
It didn’t work. Swift began her sold-out show at SoFi Stadium with her song “Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince” on Thursday to the cheers and applause of 70,000 fans.
Regardless, striking hotel workers and their supporters have continued raising awareness for their cause in the area. As the tour’s six-night Los Angeles run thunders on, even more strikers — represented by Unite Here Local 11, Southern California’s largest hospitality union — have joined the picket line.
Their growing presence on the sidewalks and streets in front of some of Los Angeles’ largest hotels means the strike has garnered attention among an unlikely crowd: Swifties.
The workers’ asks
As Swift’s first L.A. show approached, hundreds of workers at hotels near the stadium joined the strikes, too. Union workers at the Holiday Inn — Los Angeles LAX, The Westin Los Angeles Airport, Four Points by Sheraton Los Angeles International Airport and the Sheraton Gateway Los Angeles Hotel walked off the job at 5 a.m. Thursday morning, the first date of Swift’s L.A. tour.
“My coworkers and I are struggling to stay in LA, close to where we work,” said Graciela Gomez, a striking room attendant at the Four Points by Sheraton, in a statement before the concerts began. “Our wages are not keeping up with the cost of rent. Meanwhile, our hotels are bursting with business from Taylor Swift’s concerts over the next week.
“We’re confident that if Taylor knew what we have been going through she would be on our side,” she added.
The region’s hotel strikes have been occurring in multiple waves all summer. Hotel workers first walked out over the busy July Fourth holiday weekend. They kicked off a second wave of strikes in mid-July. And their third wave of strikes, which is still ongoing, began July 21. Throughout, their primary ask of hotels has been consistent: wages that keep up with the rising cost of living in Southern California.
Unite Here workers initially asked Swift to postpone her show in July, but as Swift’s concerts approached, their cause gained momentum. The open letter they issued featured the signatures of more than 50 elected officials, including California Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis, Mayor of Santa Monica Gleam Davis and California State Senators Dave Min and Maria Elena Durazo.
“In Los Angeles, hotels are doubling and tripling what they charge because you are coming,” the letter reads. “The hotels are making more money than ever, but many workers cannot afford to live close to where they work. Some of them even sleep in their cars between shifts. Others are at risk of losing their homes. Hotel workers are fighting for their lives. They are fighting for a living wage. They have gone on strike. Now, they are asking for your support.”
On Friday, the second day of the tour's L.A. run, thousands more hotel workers joined picket lines. Aracely Chinchilla, a striking worker, said in a statement on Friday that she’s been a housekeeper at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows for 32 years.
“That’s longer than my granddaughter and nieces have been alive,” she said. “They all love Taylor Swift and play her songs around the house all the time. Through them, I know that Ms. Swift is a good person with a good heart, that she is someone who cares about what we women have to go through in the world.
“That’s why we’re asking Ms. Swift to postpone her L.A. concerts and stand with us until we win a fair contract with living wages,” she added.
The Taylor Swift effect
The “Eras” tour — which is on pace to earn $1 billion in ticket sales, per The Wall Street Journal — has had such an impact on tour stop cities that some analysts called it the “Swift Lift.”
As of last week, Taylor Swift's tour dates coincided with a 7.7% year-over-year increase in hotel prices in the month leading up to her concerts, according to hospitality business intelligence provider OTA Insight. As of early June, the Eras Tour had already added $98.2 million in room revenue to the U.S. hotel industry, according to STR.
“We love Swifties,” said Pete Hillan, spokesperson for the Hotel Association of Los Angeles and California Hotel & Lodging Association, who called them “an economic force.”
“Heaven help anybody that stands between the Swifties and their L.A. fun,” he added.
Speaking Thursday morning about the possibility of the show’s cancellation, Hillan said: “Everyone knows that’s not gonna happen.”
Though he’s since been proven right, canceling a concert over a strike isn’t unheard of. Last month, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg canceled their forthcoming Los Angeles show in solidarity with striking Writers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild members, whose strikes would have impacted the production.
Meanwhile, on Reddit and X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, some fans found themselves in disagreement over how the situation should be handled.
“Taylor can't just postpone 6 shows with less than a week left until they're supposed to happen,” said one commenter on Reddit. “That's not how things work.”
Zan Romanoff, a fan with tickets to see the show at SoFi Stadium, told Hotel Dive she was supportive of the workers’ cause.
“When I heard about the calls for the shows to be canceled or postponed, I was all for it, but I was also pretty sure it was never going to happen,” she said. “It would be an enormous logistical headache, and it just seemed far-fetched that Taylor Swift, who has never spoken either way about unions, workers' rights, etc. and who is... not averse to making money, let's say, would be willing to do something like that.”
Upon further consideration, Romanoff realized the workers’ demands centered on Swift – not the fans. “So then it was just like, the workers aren't asking people not to attend the concerts themselves. What are they asking for? How can I support them?” Romanoff decided to donate the cost of her ticket to Unite Here.
As for Swift herself, her team could not be reached for comment. The star, however, has made headlines more favorable to labor elsewhere: Rolling Stone recently reported she gave $55 million in bonuses to production staffers working her tour.
In the meantime, her tour will almost certainly give its “Swift Lift” bump to Los Angeles’ hotels.
