Politicians ask Taylor Swift to drop everything now, postpone L.A. concerts

Most cities have been rolling out the red carpet for Taylor Swift and basically handing her the keys to the kingdom. Yet there’s a somewhat different response in Los Angeles, the final stop on the U.S. leg of the Eras Tour (this year). Several politicians, including California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, have called for Swift to postpone her L.A. concerts in solidarity with striking hotel workers in the area.

Last week, SoCal hotel workers from Unite HERE Local 11 themselves called upon the pop star to postpone. “Your shows make our hotels a lot of money. In Los Angeles, hotels are doubling and tripling what they charge because you are coming. They also add junk fees on rooms, just like Ticketmaster does. But we see none of it,” read and open letter from the union. “When we returned to work after the pandemic, the hotels upped our workload and cut our paychecks by not letting us clean rooms on a daily basis. The hotels are making more money than ever, but we can’t afford to live close to work, so some of us sleep in our cars between shifts. Our paychecks are so small many of us are losing our homes.”

Dozens of politicians have joined the campaign to seek Swift’s support ahead of her six sold out shows at Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium. Kounalakis, the highest-ranking official to sign her name and a candidate for California governor in 2026, told Politico, “I stand with Unite HERE in their fight for a living wage. And I hope we can use this moment to bring attention to the hardworking men and women who are the engine of our economy.”

The Eras Tour has been a boon to the local economies of the cities in which it’s touched down, generating an estimated $5 billion in economic impact on the U.S. leg, according to Pollstar. Of course, it’s also a major moneymaker in its own right: the tour is projected to be the first in history to crack the billion-dollar mark, with Pollstar estimating a total of $1.4 billion for the whole shebang. And that was before she added a handful of extra U.S. dates to the calendar for Fall 2024.

Swift hasn’t been stingy with her cash. This week, she’s made headlines for doling out big bonuses to her tour crew, totaling a whopping $55 million. The truckers on her tour alone were given $100,000 each. The Grammy winner is clearly generous of spirit (at least to an extent), but canceling the Los Angeles shows in solidarity with striking workers seems extremely unlikely. The L.A. shows begin on Thursday, and thousands of fans have already showed up just for a chance to get something from the merch truck (via ABC 7).

Perhaps she’ll signify her solidarity some other way—after all, as Unite HERE pointed out, Swift stood beside hotel housekeepers Juana Malara and Sandra Pezqueda for Time magazine’s “silence breakers” issue in 2017. “And so, we know she’s always been a fierce advocate for women,” Unite Here Local 11 member Maria Hernandez told The Hollywood Reporter. “Taylor Swift has stood by women throughout her career.” As Swift finds herself in the epicenter of Hot Labor Summer, we’ll see if she gives the union(s) a shout-out as the shows commence.