Tensions erupt at SEIU Local 1000 as CalPERS board member texts vulgar phrase at president

An attention-grabbing headline appeared this week in the inboxes of tens of thousands of California state workers represented by SEIU Local 1000.

“Suck a D---!” read bold text at the top of the public employee union’s Monday newsletter.

The vulgar headline referred to a remark Theresa Taylor, an elected member on the CalPERS Board of Administration and a Local 1000 officer, wrote in a text message to another union representative regarding Local 1000 president Richard Louis Brown.

Her daughter, Anna-Marie Taylor, who until Aug. 12 was a Local 1000 District Labor Council president and Franchise Tax Board employee, texted a nearly identical phrase to the same union rep.

The crude exchanges — and the union’s decision to publicize them — opened a window on an increasingly tense standoff between newly elected Brown and some of the 65 members of the union’s board of directors who have opposed many of the changes he wants to make at the organization.

Without consulting the board, Brown recently filed an objection to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s order that all state employees be vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to regular testing. Brown’s objection prompted strong reactions, with some union members supporting him and others saying Newsom’s order would make them safer at work.

Brown has also called for the state to halt plans to close California Correctional Center in Susanville, which employs about 250 SEIU Local 1000-represented employees, by the end of next June. He has blasted Newsom on Twitter, demanding a one-on-one meeting with the governor to talk about the prison and other matters.

On Aug. 10, union employee Alex Hernandez texted each of the Taylors asking if they would attend an Aug. 27 rally to protest Newsom’s plan to close a state prison in Susanville.

“Absolutely not and how dare this Union president use Union dues for a rally that is political AND pay Union Leave for a rally,” Taylor texted back, according to a transcript of the exchange. “He has not done his job and met and conferred with the state.”

“RLB can suck a d---,” Taylor texted next, adding that she was speaking on behalf of the district labor council she was serving as vice president. The union, which represents about 100,000 state employees, is organized in districts representing smaller groups of workers.

The Aug. 16 Local 1000 newsletter said the Taylors’ comments crossed a line of decorum and that the two should “expect the same consequences as anyone else.”

In an interview, Brown, who is Black, called the texts from the two women racist.

“What they’re saying is you should know your place, you should do what we tell you to,” Brown said.

He said their comments were part of an effort to “silence (his) voice” and to remove him from his leadership position.

CalPERS board member

Each of the Taylors said in interviews that race wasn’t a factor in their comments.

Theresa Taylor, elected to represent state employees on the board overseeing CalPERS’ $484 billion portfolio, said she sent the text in anger over Brown’s approach to the state’s prison closure plans and other actions she said he has taken since he was elected in May.

The Taylors said the union should be negotiating with the state to find new jobs or other benefits for the employees who will be affected by the closure.

Taylor said she has been a union steward since 2000, including serving for the entirety of past president Yvonne Walker’s 13-year term. She said Brown’s approach to dealing with the state isn’t effective.

“He has broken our relationship with CalHR, with the Governor’s Office, and I’m angry,” she said.

“Should I have used that language, probably not,” she said. “But I do have a right to use that language. This is my union, I’m a union steward, I have a right to my opinion of how he’s hurting our union.”

CalPERS board President Henry Jones said Taylor’s comments don’t violate the CalPERS board’s code of conduct since she was acting in her capacity as a union representative and not as a board member.

“Having said that, I did review the situation and could indicate that CalPERS does not condone those sorts of disrespectful comments to its members or to anyone,” Jones said. “So I just hope that the parties will resolve this is in a respectful manner.”

Taylor called Brown’s inclusion of her comment in the union newsletter a misuse of union resources. She said she and former president Walker received worse message from critics, but kept them private.

Taylor is up for re-election on the CalPERS board next year. Her past campaigns for the board were supported by Local 1000 under Walker.

‘I wanted other state workers to see this’

Anna-Marie Taylor said she stands by what she said. The younger Taylor said she intended to attract attention with her text, to try to get more state workers to pay attention to the changes at their union.

“I wanted other state workers to see this,” she said. “I wanted this to be as public as possible, because he and his activities need to be more visible to the average person.”

Anna-Marie Taylor resigned from the Franchise Tax Board on Aug. 12, saying she needs time to treat a health problem.

On her last day, she sent a department-wide email leveling accusations against Brown — mostly without evidence — of misusing union funds and neglecting his leadership responsibilities, including bargaining over the impacts of the planned closure of California Correctional Center in Susanville.

Brown said the accusations aren’t true. He cast them as efforts to undermine him.

This story was originally published August 20, 2021 at 5:25 AM.