California union takes ‘legal action’ after suspended president occupied Sacramento HQ
Several leaders of SEIU Local 1000 announced Monday they had taken unspecified legal action over union president Richard Louis Brown’s occupation of the organization’s headquarters over the weekend.
The union’s three vice presidents locked Brown out of the building a week ago after taking action to suspend him. On Saturday, about 20 of Brown’s supporters gained entry to the building without a key during a protest, and Brown joined them inside.
The highly unusual events at the building, monitored Saturday by Sacramento police, escalated an internal power struggle at California’s largest state employee union, an organization with a $47 million budget that represents 100,000 workers. Brown defeated four other candidates in an election nine months ago after running a fiery campaign in which he bashed opponents and promised big changes.
Some of Brown’s supporters, most of whom traveled from rural Lassen County, remained inside the headquarters Monday, with the building’s doors chained from within.
The vice presidents announced to members in an email Monday afternoon that they had taken legal action related to the occupation, but didn’t provide specifics.
The VPs also announced they had acknowledged the result of a board of directors vote on Saturday to strip Brown of most of his leadership powers and transfer them to board member Bill Hall, who was selected as chairman of the union’s 65-member board of directors.
“We’re trying to be the sane adults in the room who aren’t escalating issues,” Hall said in an interview Monday. “Staff is safe and secure, working from home. Business is conducted as usual. While not having access to the building is an inconvenience, that’s about all it is at the moment.”
Brown didn’t respond to texts Monday. Over the weekend he said he remains president and retains the authority to use the building. He has called the vice presidents’ suspension of him illegitimate, saying he suspended them first for plotting to suspend him.
He remained defiant Monday in interviews on local radio station KDEE and elsewhere.
He said the union is at war, and called the VPs “evil.”
“When someone is evil, like the three VPs, what are they doing to me? They’re trying to take away my desire to live” he said on KDEE. He added the word “evil” is the word “live” spelled backwards.
He expressed frustration over the weekend with efforts to strip him of his power, saying union officials were working to thwart their votes for him.
Law firm sides with SEIU Local 1000 VPs
The vice presidents received a legal memo Friday from Washington, D.C.-based firm Bredhoff and Kaiser that supports the vice presidents’ suspension of Brown. The Sacramento Bee obtained a copy of the document.
The three VPs said when they suspended Brown that he had misspent union money, mishandled lawsuits and shut out other union officials from leadership, presenting an immediate threat to the organization.
The memo from the DC firm said the alleged misconduct — including Brown’s failures to hold meetings, pass a budget and keep board members informed about lawsuits — represented a “sound basis” for concluding Brown’s actions represented an immediate threat to the organization.
The attorneys looked less favorably on Brown’s earlier actions to suspend the vice presidents before they could suspend him.
Brown told the VPs he was suspending their membership – not their leadership positions – pursuant to another section of the union’s governing documents.
Unlike the VPs’ suspension of Brown’s presidency, the process of suspending membership has protections in the California Corporations Code requiring advance notice and the opportunity to be heard prior to the suspension, according to the memo.
“While the Corporations Code provides strict protections with regard to suspension of membership, the code gives corporations wide latitude in removal of officers,” the attorneys wrote in the memo.
With building chained shut, staff works from home
The roughly 100 employees who work for Local 1000 have been told to work remotely until further notice, said Joyce Thomas-Villaronga, president of UAW 2350, the union that represents the employees who work for Local 1000.
Thomas-Villaronga said the employees she represents can work remotely, but expressed concerns about missing mail related to members’ disciplinary proceedings and other matters that might include deadlines.
“It’s difficult when you cannot go in the office at all,” she said.
Brown won support 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.
This story was originally published March 7, 2022 at 4:12 PM.