California union lobbyist sues SEIU Local 1000 president, alleging harassment, retaliation

A former senior employee of SEIU Local 1000 is suing union president Richard Louis Brown and his chief of staff, alleging Brown harassed her in a closed-door meeting and then fired her after she attempted to report it.

Deema Lopez was the union’s government affairs director and had been an employee of the union since 2009, according to her lawsuit, filed Sept. 28 in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Lopez’s lawsuit says Brown insisted on meeting Lopez in-person in Sacramento after his chief of staff Donna Snodgrass called her “pretty” and then harassed and humiliated her in a closed-door meeting. The lawsuit doesn’t allege Brown made sexual advances, but that he treated Lopez differently based on her gender.

Brown said Friday that he had not yet been served with the lawsuit and declined comment.

Brown was sworn in as the union’s president on June 30, after running a campaign in which he posted many emotionally charged videos and often lashed out against his campaign opponents and against Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Prior to Brown’s election, SEIU Local 1000 supported Newsom’s effort to defeat a recall campaign. The union also endorsed him 2018.

Brown quickly fired senior directors and managers after his election, according to Lopez’s lawsuit. Lopez kept her job, but was nervous, according to her lawsuit.

In a July 23 meeting, Brown’s chief of staff, Donna Snodgrass, told Lopez she was “pretty” and told her Brown had been “wanting to meet (her) in person,” according to the lawsuit.

On July 30, she flew from Los Angeles, where she lives, to Sacramento for an in-person meeting, at Brown’s insistence, according to the lawsuit.

She declined his offer to pick her up at the airport. When she arrived for the meeting, Brown shut the office door.

In an intimidating manner, the lawsuit says he repeatedly said to her, “What do you know about me? Tell me everything you know.” Later, he insisted she read out loud to him the 10-point platform on which he campaigned.

He asked her why she and her staff didn’t follow him on Facebook, and he demanded that she put him on the phone with Newsom, according to the lawsuit.

“Mr. Brown’s demands made clear that his goal for the meeting was not to learn more about Ms. Lopez or her department: it was to humiliate and intimidate her,” the lawsuit says.

Lopez raised concerns with Snodgrass about Brown’s “intentions” at a lunch afterward, and Snodgrass dismissed them, saying “that’s just how he is,” according to the lawsuit.

“It became clear to Ms. Lopez that Mr. Brown was creating a hostile and toxic work environment for her because of and based on her gender,” the lawsuit says.

Snodgrass “attempted to justify” Brown’s behavior by comparing him to former President Donald Trump, according to the lawsuit, saying that “not everyone accepted his presidency but that he ‘had great ideas,’ and that ‘everyone agreed with him, but they all had trouble getting him to focus. It’s hard to get him to focus.’”

In the days that followed, Snodgrass raised concerns with Lopez about her handling of communications surrounding a plan for a Local 1000-hosted CalPERS candidate debate that ended up being canceled after one of the candidates said they were sick.

Lopez called the union’s human resources director and said she needed confidentiality to talk about “an interaction with someone else.” The director asked if it was sexual harassment, saying he’d need to report it if it was, and then, when met with silence, hung up, according to the lawsuit.

The week after the meeting, Lopez was placed on administrative leave and then she was fired, receiving an email that said only that her “services (were) no longer needed,” according to the lawsuit.

The law firm representing Lopez, Los Angeles-based Brent and Fiol LLP, is also representing another former Local 1000 employee, Brandi Lopes, in a lawsuit against Brown and the union.

Lopes, who was an assistant to the president starting under former president Yvonne Walker, alleges Brown violated the Family and Medical Leave Act by promoting other employees to take her place while she was on leave in the wake of her mother’s death.

“Combined, our clients dedicated nearly 20 years of their lives to the labor movement,” attorney Kipp Mueller said. “They’re in a difficult position. They’re both profoundly proud of their work for SEIU and for improving the lives of workers, but they also know that no one gets a pass when it comes to harassment, bullying and wrongfully terminating workers.”

This story was originally published October 8, 2021 at 12:31 PM.