Update: Controversial union leader and supporters occupy Sacramento headquarters building during protest

SEIU Local 1000 president Richard Louis Brown and about 20 of his supporters occupied the union’s Sacramento headquarters Saturday after gaining access without a key.

Brown had been locked out of the building since early in the week. Three union vice presidents locked him out after taking action to suspend him, saying he had spent union money improperly, mishandled lawsuits and shut out other union officials from leadership.

The events were the latest escalation in a messy power struggle between Brown — who was elected nine months ago to a three-year term leading the union representing 100,000 state employees — and a group of board members who have accused him of harming the union’s reputation and preventing them from fulfilling their roles as board members.

The vice presidents scheduled a virtual meeting Saturday to vote on proposals to hire an independent hearing officer to weigh accusations against Brown and, separately, to strip him of his leadership powers.

Brown’s supporters, most of whom traveled from rural Lassen County, were outside the building to protest the meeting when a building manager exited through the door. A member of the group quickly reopened it before its magnetic lock clicked shut, and the group entered. Brown had not yet arrived.

Sacramento police arrived minutes later, as did Brown, and then vice president Irene Green arrived. Police didn’t remove anyone, but acted as intermediaries between the two groups.

Brown removed several boxes of documents shortly after arriving. In an interview, he said they were “confidential” documents from his office, which he had not been able to access after he was locked out.

Brown and his supporters say the suspension by the vice presidents was illegitimate. Before he was suspended, Brown sent letters to the three vps telling them he was suspending their membership for plotting to suspend him.

“What they’re trying to do is rob people of their voices,” said Brown, shortly after the group chanted, “Whose house is this? Our house!”

Brown and his supporters remained in the building at about 5 p.m. Saturday, and posted a video to Facebook from inside.

The group of board members who have been trying to strip Brown of his leadership powers called Saturday’s entrance a break-in.

Local 1000 secretary-treasurer David Jimenez, who is one of the vice presidents, said in a statement that Brown’s supporters “attempted to thwart the member-elected vice presidents and board of directors from meeting and representing our members in protecting our union.”

Bill Hall, a leader of the group attempting to strip Brown’s powers, filed a lawsuit in January seeking to remove Brown from office and bar his re-election, citing Brown’s spending and other actions.

Brown’s supporters said Hall and some of the other board members were trying to undermine the result of their votes.

“If you want to vote him out, then do it (in the next election),” said Ebie Lynch, a licensed vocational nurse with the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and a union steward. “We’re saying we don’t want you to do it illegally.”

Brown has won support from union members in Lassen County partly by pledging to fight Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plans to close California Correctional Center, a state prison that provides many of the best-paying jobs in the area. It’s one of two prisons the administration slated for closure to try to reduce the state’s $17 billion in annual corrections spending.

Jack Dean, the elected leader of a Local 1000 district in Lassen County, said Saturday that union members in the area finally feel like someone is fighting for their interests, which Dean said were neglected under former president Yvonne Walker.

Dean and other members expressed frustration with Walker’s work on politics and social causes. They have said the union should keep its focus on pay, benefits and working conditions.

“That man right there, that man Richard Brown, is not the problem,” Dean said. “He’s trying to stop the problem that’s been here 13 years.”

Local 1000 is the largest union representing California state employees. The 100,000 employees it represents work in a wide range of jobs and geographic settings, from office employees in Sacramento to prison nurses in Susanville.

In the afternoon, the board voted unanimously in executive session to change the union’s bylaws to allow the hiring of an independent hearing officer to handle complaints against top union officers, Jimenez said.

In open session, the board voted on the proposal to strip the union’s president of most leadership powers and to transfer those powers to a board-selected chairman.

“I think that the transaction of today only serves to strengthen the argument (for) decentralizing power, creating checks and balances and moving the majority of the authority for operations to the board,” Hall said before the vote.

Thirty-six people voted. Twenty-five supported the proposal and 11 opposed it, including vice presidents Jimenez and Anica Walls, who said they felt it necessary to suspend Brown but not to make the major changes that were proposed.

Some of Brown’s supporters on the board of directors did not participate in the virtual meeting held Saturday.

Mary De La Cruz, one of those board members, said she couldn’t get a clear answer from the union’s primary attorney as to whether the meeting, which was called by the three vice presidents, was legal.

“They’re suspended, so I’m confused here,” De La Cruz said.

This story was originally published March 5, 2022 at 2:58 PM.