SEIU Local 1000 feud escalates with big union leave cut for vice presidents

The board of directors for SEIU Local 1000 voted Friday to reduce the amount of time three top officers may be paid for union work, in a change likely to aggravate tensions between the officers and the union’s president.

The change eliminated three quarters of the union leave available to vice presidents Tony Owens, Anica Walls and Kevin Menager, who have clashed with longtime president Yvonne Walker over their roles since they were elected in 2018.

Union leave provides pay for members who conduct union business during time they otherwise would be working. The vice presidents were on full-time union leave. The change reduces their leave to 25 percent.

At a Hilton hotel in San Diego, the board voted 39 to 21 to reduce leave for the vice presidents , said Owens, the vice president for bargaining.

Owens said the change would severely limit the vice presidents’ ability to listen to and respond to members.

“People who pay dues money expect that their leaders are going to be responsive,” he said.

The trio campaigned against Walker last year under the banner Members for Transparency and Change.

They won the vice president seats while Walker retained the presidency.

Since then, the vice presidents have said Walker has blocked their access to financial and organizational records and restricted their travel.

Walker has said the trio have misunderstand their roles and haven’t put together plans and strategies to which she is willing to commit union resources.

Brian Nash, an SEIU Local 1000 spokesman, said in an email that the board “overwhelmingly decided that VP union leave as previously structured was not in the best interest of our members.”

“It was a business decision the board felt needed to be made to address accountability,” Nash said in the email. He said full time union leave has not always been granted to vice presidents in the union.

Friday’s motion to reduce the leave included nine allegations, several of which have been raised before by Walker. They included claims that the vice presidents improperly used union resources for a “victory tour” after their election, to continue to campaign against Walker and to undermine the bargaining process.

The vice presidents refute the allegations. Owens said no evidence was offered to support them before Friday’s vote.

“There was definitely no due process, and everyone got to see that,” he said.

Muddled union bylaws have contributed to the tensions.

A governing document known as a policy file offered little clarity when Owens argued he was entitled to more access to bargaining meetings than he had been given over the summer.

The union reached a tentative contract agreement with the state in August, which was finalized in October. The agreement gave the union’s 100,000 represented workers a 7 percent raise over three years, a health insurance stipend worth $3,100 per year and a range of larger raises for specific job classifications.

Ratification votes on the contract aggravated tensions. A group of workers, including inspectors, technicians, assistants and other workers within the union, initially rejected the union-negotiated contract.

Some of the dissatisfied workers in the group took their frustrations to the vice presidents. Walker has said the vice presidents worked to undermine the vote, while the vice presidents say they were careful to remain neutral while restricting their input to educating members on the process.

Walker quickly led an effort to schedule a re-vote, which resulted in the group approving the contract.

The union’s policy file offers conflicting information on the union leave policy, appearing to provide leave for the officers while also saying the leave is under the president’s jurisdiction.

“Local 1000 shall secure union leave for the Local 1000 statewide officers,” says one section.

“Union leave shall be administered and authorized by the president or his or her designee,” says another.

Owens said the vote Friday included an amendment to tweak the policy file to ensure it allows for the reduction.

He said he has reached out to SEIU International for guidance.

This story was originally published December 17, 2019 at 5:00 AM.