Chaos in one of California’s largest government unions as VPs lock out Local 1000 president

California’s largest state employee union reached a new level of disarray Monday as three top officers locked the union’s president out of the organization’s Sacramento headquarters.

The lockout came after the three elected vice presidents of SEIU Local 1000 took action Sunday to suspend President Richard Louis Brown. Brown said Monday he would not recognize the suspension.

The effort is the latest attempt from within the divided organization to remove Brown, who was elected in May on promises of dues reductions, pay raises and major changes to the traditional way of doing things at the influential public employee union. A group of board members has been trying to strip Brown’s leadership powers since October, and filed a lawsuit last month seeking to compel the change.

Two of the three vice presidents had been working with Brown on the union’s budget and other objectives, staying out of Brown’s fight with the board members. But they began discussing suspension last week.

In a letter Sunday addressed to Brown’s chief of staff, the vice presidents said Brown “posed an immediate threat to the welfare of Local 1000.” They cited language in the union’s governing documents that allow the vice presidents to suspend the president.

“Troubling patterns emerged with Brown’s actions that dismantled both transparency and democracy that members expect,” the vice presidents said in the letter. “Due to his actions, the three Vice Presidents had no alternative but to promptly step in to restore fiscal prudence, board oversight, democratic procedures, and the proper delegation of officers’ duties all required for our members’ benefit.”

Brown said Monday he is still the union’s president.

“This is a travesty of justice to the voting membership of Local 1000 by the VPs!” he said in a text Monday morning.

Brown said he suspended the three vice presidents Friday, locking them out of the union’s headquarters before they took action to suspend him. The three regained access to the headquarters on Monday, and posted a news release to the union’s website outlining specific allegations against Brown, including failing to hold board meetings, interfering with the vice presidents, jeopardizing union assets, giving staff extra days off and retaliating against union officials who questioned him.

He said the three were suspended for “plotting to suspend (him) based on baseless allegations and for releasing confidential information regarding legal matters, along with creating chaos amongst the board and staff by staging a hostile takeover.”

SEIU International wants to see union stabilized

He apparently was referring to an email from Local 1000 Secretary-Treasurer David Jimenez to board members explaining that he and Local 1000 Vice President of organizing Anica Walls had initiated suspension talks.

The email referenced four lawsuits against Brown and the union along with Brown’s “unilateral” actions, including new directives to Local 1000 employees that have sparked pushback.

The union’s policies say written charges must be submitted within 10 days or the suspension will be terminated.

The vice presidents cited another provision saying that when the president is absent or disabled, the secretary-treasurer assumes leadership. That’s Jimenez.

Jimenez and Walls have appeared in videos with Brown and had worked with him. Vice President for Bargaining Irene Green also signed on to Brown’s suspension. The union represents about 100,000 state employees in jobs ranging from office assistants to prison nurses.

SEIU International, the California union’s parent organization, weighed in Monday. Spokesman Dan O’Sullivan said the organization hopes the suspension will “stabilize the local and safeguard the interests of the members while related charges and legal matters are fully and fairly adjudicated.”

The Washington, D.C.-based organization has raised the possibility it could take action based on numerous complaints it has received from members relating to Brown’s leadership and their safety.

California union clashes

Brown clashed with many members of the union’s board as soon as he took office in June. Divisions have deepened as he has tried to implement his agenda without the board’s support.

He initiated a “confidential” budget-making process for the $47 million-per-year organization, circumventing the board, and the board voted down the budget proposal December, leaving the union without an official budget for the year.

His supporters have accused Brown’s opponents of trying to preserve the status quo despite their votes for change. Brown has been fighting to try to keep open a Lassen County prison the state plans to close, and he has refused to accept the state’s offer of $50 monthly stipends for teleworking employees, accepted months ago by other unions.

Brown has threatened to go on strike in the future if contract negotiations with the state reach an impasse. He has told union employees that he will secure a 21% pay raise for them.

This week’s suspension dispute comes as a lawsuit aiming to remove Brown from the presidency moves forward in Sacramento County Superior Court.

The lawsuit stems from an October meeting, called by a slim majority of the union’s 65-member board of directors, in which a majority of those present voted to overhaul union policies to transfer leadership powers from the union’s president to a board-selected chairperson.

Bill Hall, whom the group selected as chairperson, sued Brown after Brown refused to acknowledge the action taken at the meeting as legitimate.

The lawsuit said Brown violated union rules when he unilaterally decided to spend money on political campaigns, purchase software, pay off a $6 million loan on the union’s midtown Sacramento headquarters and give union employees an extra six days off — all without approval from the board and without disclosing details to them.

Jimenez said in his email last week that he and Walls don’t support the effort by Hall and some of the other board members to change how the organization is run, but they said they had decided to take action to stop Brown from “causing further damage.”

This story was originally published February 28, 2022 at 12:59 PM.