California union leaders want SEIU Local 1000 election result tossed, alleging irregularities

At least five people who ran for leadership positions at California state government’s largest union are urging it to throw out the results of a recent election in which controversial candidate Richard Louis Brown was elected president.

A self-styled outsider, Brown supports the recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom and has aggressively attacked opponents on social media. Brown defeated longtime President Yvonne Walker in a low-turnout, five-way contest.

The candidates who filed protests want the union to re-do the vote, saying irregularities in how the election was run and how votes were counted undermined confidence in the result.

Miguel Cordova, a candidate for president, filed a protest Thursday alleging Brown violated union ethics policies in ways that should have disqualified him.

Three vice presidential candidates who campaigned on a slate with Cordova filed protests alleging violations of election procedures and irregularities in the counting of votes.

Kevin Healy, a local union official representing Marin and Sonoma counties, also filed a protest alleging irregularities.

A committee of three people — appointed by Walker — is responsible for vetting the protests.

Union policies say the protest committee must mail its decision to parties of the protest by June 25. Under the policies, Walker would remain in office until any outstanding protests are resolved. If the protests are resolved, Brown would take office June 30.

Walker through a spokesman declined to address the protest letters, to confirm whether she has appointed a protest committee or to disclose how many protests have been filed.

About 7,900 union members voted among the 54,000 who, as dues-payers, were eligible. The union represents some 100,000 state employees ranging from custodians and office workers to prison nurses and agriculture inspectors.

Since losing the election in May, Walker has led negotiations to restore state workers’ pay, which was reduced last year amid gloomy budget projections, and scheduled an emergency meeting in which the union voted to donate $1 million to help defend Newsom from a recall.

SEIU election protests

Cordova said Brown violated provisions in a code of conduct section that requires candidates to offer “constructive alternatives” to existing policies, to be truthful and to “conduct themselves in a manner which brings respect to Local 1000.”

He said proposals from Brown to do things like allow non-union members to vote in union elections and to distance the union from parent SEIU organizations are not constructive.

He said video recordings made by Brown and posted to his Facebook page, in which Brown questioned Walker’s tenure as a U.S. Marine and made other attacks on candidates, showcase violations of the other elements of the code.

“That campaign goes against everything that represents us, either through our bylaws or our constitution,” Cordova said.

Brown offered to pay the dues of non-members so they could vote in the union election. Cordova also took issue with that offer, likening it to paying someone for a vote.

Brown said no one took him up on his offer.

Reached by phone Thursday, Brown characterized the protests as race-based attacks.

“They’re saying that by me taking office, I may undermine the union,” he said. “Once again, this is an attack on me as a Black man in this country. And as a Black man in this country I’m going to keep fighting for what is right.”

Call for another vote

Healy, in his protest letter, said union leaders improperly changed voting rules, directed an election vendor to nullify hundreds of votes and failed to properly screen candidates. Healy won election as a District Labor Council president but is still contesting the result.

“We need the members to know that this was a clean election with equal standards,” Healy said. “We’re all steward volunteers and we’re out here trying to protect people and we have to have our integrity.”

In his letter, Healy said there is precedent for holding a re-vote.

In 2019, one of nine groups of state employees represented by the union voted against ratifying a tentative contract agreement with Newsom’s administration. The “no” vote would have required Local 1000 to negotiate a separate agreement for the 2,800 workers in the unit, who could potentially have been excluded from annual raises and new health insurance stipends.

Union leaders called a redo, citing a close result and misinformation they said was circulating during voting. Non-members became members, and a new round of voting got a “yes” result.

The protest letters also cite irregularities in the election timeline.

Union policies say an election committee, appointed by the president, is supposed to notify members of election procedures by the first business day in January.

That didn’t happen, and the “rules and timelines for voting and eligibility” changed after January, Healy said in his protest letter.

On April 2, an email went out from a general SEIU Local 1000 email account saying that anyone who wasn’t a member had to submit a membership application by April 7 in order to vote, according to a copy of the email obtained by The Sacramento Bee. Voting started April 19.

Brown and other candidates for president — including Sophia Perkins and Tony Owens — have said the early membership requirement deviated from past practice, in which nonmembers could join and vote immediately.

Healy and Cordova’s running mates called on the protest committee to investigate allegations that some votes were thrown out by an election vendor as they were counted in the days after voting closed May 20.

Cordova said he shares concerns over the vote count, since union leaders neither provided a number of thrown-out votes nor provided criteria for why votes were tossed.

This story was originally published June 11, 2021 at 5:25 AM.