As November runoff nears, carpenter\u2019s union switches endorsement from Bass to Raman<\/p>\n
On Monday, the union representing Los Angeles carpenters announced it would endorse L.A. mayoral candidate Nithya Raman over L.A. Mayor Karen Bass.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Western States Carpenters represents 60,000 carpenters and is now supporting Raman as she seeks to unseat Bass in the November election. The union previously endorsed Bass during her mayoral bid in 2022.<\/p>\n
Raman announced the carpenters\u2019 union\u2019s endorsement in a press conference, where she also took the opportunity to address housing affordability.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to see cranes rising all over the city of Los Angeles,\u201d Raman said. \u201cI want to see well-paid union workers breaking ground on tens of thousands of new homes near transit and jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, her opponent, Bass, was in Koreatown for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the development of a 19-unit affordable housing project for veterans, reaffirming her commitment to housing affordability.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis development is amazing,\u201d Bass said at the ceremony. \u201cTo do it with the neighbors, to do it with the community is the best way housing gets built.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mayor\u2019s first executive directive to fast-track affordable housing helped lead to this specific housing project. One aspect of the project is that there is no provision that would require union wages for construction workers after advisors informed Bass that it could increase project costs by up to 20%.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor originally backed Bass and viewed Raman\u2019s last-minute run as a betrayal after she previously supported Bass for mayor, but they don\u2019t necessarily represent a uniform opinion by all labor unions. The carpenters\u2019 union said concerns over Bass\u2019 housing policies, construction rules, the Department of Water and Power, and worker pensions prompted the endorsement switch.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that Los Angeles needs to be built; we get it,\u201d said Pete Rodriguez, Vice President of United Brotherhood of Carpenters. \u201cThe plan that was put in place left workers out of the equation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Raman, on the other hand, has emphasized her commitment to housing production, faster permitting, construction-related jobs and a more aggressive approach to tackling issues with basic city services, distinguishing her from Bass.<\/p>\n
In response to the carpenters\u2019 union endorsement, a campaign spokesperson for Bass released a statement adding that she has an overwhelming amount of support from labor unions.<\/p>\n
As Bass and Raman prepare for a Nov. 3 runoff after the June primary, Bass still has a majority of labor unions on her side and Raman has to persuade voters she can do better than the incumbent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As November runoff nears, carpenter\u2019s union switches endorsement from Bass to Raman On Monday, the union representing Los…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":980748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,393554,5413,2961,285946,224,5337,23527,9117,249286],"class_list":["post-980747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-carpenters-union","tag-karen-bass","tag-la","tag-la-mayoral-candidates","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-mayoral-election","tag-mayoral-race","tag-nithya-raman"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117039036409982360","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/980747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=980747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/980747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/980748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=980747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=980747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=980747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}