Taylor Swift urged to postpone LA shows as hotel workers strike
By Parija Kavilanz, CNN
New York (CNN) — “Swifties” heading to Los Angeles to see Taylor Swift concerts this week may find a large number of staff at their hotels on strike when they get there.
The union representing 15,000 hotel workers who have been staging a series of rolling strikes since the start of July said it resumed strikes Thursday morning at four of the hotels near LAX and SoFi Stadium, where the Eras Tour concerts will take place.
Hundreds of cooks, room attendants, dishwashers, servers, bellmen and front desk agents walked out Thursday morning from four hotels: Sheraton Gateway, Holiday Inn LAX, Westin LAX and Four Points Sheraton, according to the union.
Some California politicians wrote to Swift this week urging her to cancel her shows in LA, which run from Thursday through August 9. The politicians said Swift’s shows would be money makers for the hotels they are battling.
California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, a Democrat, and dozens of other elected state officials signed their names to a letter organized by union Unite Here Local 11 asking that she stand in solidarity with the striking workers.
CNN has reached out to Swift for comment.
Unite Here Local 11, the largest hospitality union in Southern California representing thousands of workers at 60 major hotels in Los Angeles and Orange counties, have followed through with their planned rolling strikes since early July, in a bid to significantly improve industry workers wages.
The strike has already affected hotels that include Ritz-Carlton, JW Marriott LA Live, Beverly Hilton, Fairmont Miramar, Anaheim Hilton, and Four Seasons Regent Beverly Wilshire, the setting for the movie “Pretty Woman.”
The open letter addressed to Swift said, “We are writing in support of the hotel housekeepers across Los Angeles. They make beds, clean bathrooms, and take care of every guest need. But right now, workers say they are struggling to make ends meet. Your shows make our region’s hotels a lot of money.”
It went on say that the hotels will make even more money when her concerts come to town, while hotel workers in the region are struggling and not benefiting from it.
“In Los Angeles, hotels are doubling and tripling what they charge because you are coming… 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,” the letter said.
– CNN’s Chris Isidore contributed to this story
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