WWTD?
It’s “What’s Taylor going to do?” That’s all that matters in LA this week.
Should Taylor Swift cancel six sold-out shows at Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium in support of the hotel workers’ strike? Or will it blow the union of workers for fans who have traveled thousands of miles and spent thousands of hard-earned dollars to see their idols in some cases?
The mere thought of a postponement stirs fear in parents’ minds. Their teens would melt faster than the ice in the desert if their coveted tickets suddenly turned out to be bar-coded with promises of future fun.
But this week, more than 40 state and local politicians, including Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kunarakis, who is running for governor, sent statements. open letter Taylor “stands up with hotel employees” and asked them to postpone their date in Los Angeles.
It’s a demand Swift can’t shake off easily. hot labor summer As frenetic as her Ellas tour, it may end up being the highest-grossing concert tour of all time. All over the country, workers are forming unions and going on strike, fed up with income inequality and a life that, as it should be, is being whittled away. No one should be forced to work full time and live in a car or even on the street. No one should end the month at the food bank just because they can’t support their family on their salary.
Since July 20, housekeepers, cooks, front desk clerks and other workers at Unite Here Local 11 have gone on strike against nearly 60 hotels in Los Angeles and Orange County. Like the sisters and brothers of SAG-AFTRA’s striking members, they want wages and benefits that match the cost of living. And like their impressive brethren, they had little success in persuading their bosses to move forward at the negotiating table.
It’s easy to see this letter to Swift as nothing more than a political ploy to grab headlines, but in a way it is. We will talk about it here.
But it’s also a smart strategy. The strike was aimed at economic and social pressure, and the enormity of such a Swift concert is unprecedented even by LA standards.
According to media reports, the dancing and sound of her show in Seattle An earthquake of magnitude 2.3.And by some estimates, this tour will take nearly $4.6 billion in consumer spending In the US alone, Swift raised $13 million overnight just for herself.
With that kind of power, Swift has the power to change the direction of a strike, even if it doesn’t cancel the show.
If striking workers could get her attention and her sympathy, Swift’s power to visit picket lines for photos and take strikers on stage with them. Imagine It’s about the hundreds of millions of fans who suddenly have no doubt that the striker is right.
“To sit on the sidelines and say nothing is the worst thing I can do,” Rep. Reggie Jones Sawyer (D-Los Angeles) told me Wednesday. He was one of the politicians who signed the letter and is a longtime member of the Service Workers International Trade Union 721.
“Everybody needs to go out on the streets and tell them they need to do the right thing,” he said.
even in swift.
That’s why they asked, and they thought she would answer.
In her early days, Swift was adamantly apolitical, she said, fearing that if she stepped outside of her country music world, she would face a Dixie Chicks-like backlash.
But her world has grown, so has she, and these days, she’s an outspoken powerhouse who can sway public opinion with a single word to her hundreds of millions of fans.
In 2020, she confronted Donald Trump during the mayhem following the murder of George Floyd. President Trump tweeted that he wanted to send troops to Minneapolis.
Swift fought back via Twitter, where she has 93 million followers.
“After fueling the fires of white supremacy and racism all his presidency, do you have the nerve to pretend to be morally superior before threatening violence?” Beginning ??? I will vote you out in November,” she wrote.
Most recently, during a concert in Chicago, he spoke out against the wave of anti-LGBTQ+ laws being passed across the country.
“Today and in recent years there have been many harmful laws enacted that put people in the LGBTQ and gay communities at risk. .” Swift reportedly told the crowd:.
Swift isn’t ignoring the struggles of the working class, either. Just this week, she reportedly gave nearly everyone struggling on tour a $55 million bonus, including $100,000 for each truck driver who hauls her luggage from town to town. reportedly included.
The owner of one of those trucking companies said it ‘A lot of money that will change your life’ For the men and women who have spent the last 24 weeks traveling with Swift, it’s no surprise. And the cash came with a handwritten note from Megastar to each worker, but that doesn’t hurt.
And don’t forget she fought that guy for herself. In recent years, Swift has not owned the masters of her old albums, so she has re-recorded them. She got the wrong deal when she was a teenager and ended up transferring ownership of her to her label.
The rights to these recordings were then purchased by music manager Scooter Braun, with Swift having an epic feud with him to regain control of the music. Her triumph came by deciding to re-record her early work, giving her full ownership of her new material and giving him the proverbial middle finger. So you can tell she’s a brawler and believes in fair reward, even if a fight was necessary.
So fear not, Swifties. Your queen is sure to take the stage.
And she will show some solidarity with the workers who built the thousands of beds on which the crew and fans sleep after the show.
