Why Did This Union Switch Its Endorsement to Socialist Nithya Raman?

Spencer Pratt, who lost his Palisades home and has yet to rebuild, and who has extensive communications with many other fire victims, says that one particular union that supported the new mayor-elect of Los Angeles is scalping victims.

“The Carpenters Union, the most prominent union to donate to Nithya, is invading the Palisades like vultures, showing up to rebuild sites, trying to lure workers to join their union. They want all residential construction labor to be unionized at $40/hr,” Pratt posted on X Friday. “People are already paying 4x the cost per sqft to rebuild in the Palisades, compared to the national average.” Hire Local, a website that connects users with local home service pros, states that the cost of living in Los Angeles is usually 50% to 60% above the national average, and that this drives up tradesmen’s bills.

As of last month, only 1% of the Palisades and Eaton victims whose property received the label “total loss” have been able to return and rebuild. When Western States Carpenters endorsed Raman, she described a future with union workers receiving thousands of building project jobs. They actively campaigned to get her votes, and they must be expecting her to give them something in return.

Pete Rodriguez, a top official with the Carpenters, says this isn't just support, but "boots on the ground" volunteers who will go out to campaign for Raman. There were pro-Nithya signs everywhere, at the carpenter training center in Sylmar, paid for by the union. https://t.co/VcdHoK4tb4

— Elizabeth Chou (@reporterliz) August 3, 2026

It has been a very long time since the days when unions were actually a movement of the people to obtain rights from bosses who paid them barely anything. For over a century, most unions have been as dictatorial as the employers they once deplored. Whenever unions get involved now, it means an increase in costs, a significant increase in bureaucracy, and a lot less opportunity for a redress of grievances. We’ve all heard jokes about how you can’t move a computer monitor an inch without the union employee, but there are actually industries and companies that have idiotic rules like that.

In a healthy capitalist society, people have lots of options, including small local businesses, whenever they want a job done. In our current pseudo-capitalistic, semi-socialized nation, there are often very few options, and the top competitors usually have deals with the government.

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Now, I am not saying that the union has a special agreement with L.A. mayor-elect Nithya Raman. I do think that the union saw her, socialist and incompetent as she is, as more favorable to their interests than outgoing Mayor Karen Bass. While Bass slow-rolled the Palisades rebuild, hope reigns eternal that every time a new mayor comes into office, she won’t be as stupid as the previous one, even if her track record indicates otherwise.

It is noteworthy that just before the election, Raman sent a letter to the Palisadian-Post, which ironically proposed many of the solutions that Republicans like Spencer Pratt have endorsed, including clearing brush, filling reservoirs, reducing fire response time, and cutting through red tape to rebuild. Whether Raman will actually live up to any of those promises, I do not know. Socialists usually promise things they don’t intend to deliver and try to sound somewhat moderate in order to get elected. But the fact is that the carpenters’ union probably heard Raman promising to increase the speed of the rebuild at some point on the campaign trail and saw her as their best bet for getting more customers in the Palisades.

Going forward, it will be even more interesting to see if Raman actually delivers on her claim of wanting less red tape, and whether it will actually benefit the union to have supported her. It is always dangerous to make a deal with the devil.

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