SEIU Local 1000 board members move to strip union president of power, pick new leader
A leadership struggle at California’s largest state employee union could soon come to a head as board members push a proposal to strip the organization’s elected president of most of his powers and replace him with a leader chosen by the board.
The effort comes just two months into president Richard Louis Brown’s contentious term at SEIU Local 1000, a union representing nearly 100,000 state employees ranging from office assistants to prison nurses.
William Hall, a district labor council president who is a member of the board, emailed the proposal to the board’s 65 members last Tuesday.
The proposal would strip the president’s authority to lead contract negotiations, to serve as its primary spokesperson, to preside over board meetings and to hire and fire staff and make committee appointments, among other powers.
Those roles would be transferred to a newly created chairperson of the board, selected by the board in a simple majority vote, according to the proposal.
In his email, Hall cited delays in selecting union bargaining representatives, meetings between Brown and “right-to-work leaders” and “concerns about SEIU Local 1000 funds and resources being misused,” in his call for the board to consider his proposal.
“The potential loss to our membership and Local 1000 to unionize, and thereby the loss of our pension, health care, and other benefits, is frighteningly prescient,” Hall said in the email.
His proposal would reduce Brown’s role, and the role of future presidents, to something similar to any other board member. The proposal was first reported by the publication Strikewave.
Brown on Tuesday called the proposal an effort to overturn the will of the union members who voted him into office.
“They don’t want to acknowledge me as the president,” he said. “They want to undo everything I’ve done since I’ve been in office so far.”
Brown has called many of the accusations against him lies. He has said he is open to talking with anyone but isn’t allied with right-to-work organizations, and he has denied allegations that he has misused union money.
“I’m doing so many things and I’m challenging the status quo on so many different issues, they’re trying to destroy me,” he said.
High bar to recall union president
The union’s governing documents include a process for recalling the president, but Hall said the process is “set up to fail.”
The process requires 20% of eligible union voters to sign a petition within 30 days. Local 1000 has roughly 55,000 dues-paying members who can vote in union elections.
A recall effort would require support from 20% of them — a few thousand more than the 7,880 people who voted in the union’s May election, in which Brown received 2,637 votes.
“The 30-day timeline really makes it very very difficult, if not impossible,” Hall said.
Among the supporters of Hall’s proposal is Theresa Taylor, a district labor council president at the union and a member of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System Board of Administration.
Taylor said several planks of Brown’s campaign platform reflect objectives that run counter to union ideals and practices, including Brown’s calls to allow non-union members to vote in union elections and to cut dues in half.
“He is not speaking for Local 1000, he is speaking for his own agenda,” Taylor said. “And that is undermining us at the bargaining table, it is undermining us at other labor organizations.”
Disagreement over California prison
Taylor’s frustration with Brown led her to text a vulgar phrase at a union employee on Aug. 10. The employee was asking if Taylor would attend a Local 1000-organized rally to oppose the closure of California Correctional Center, a state prison in Susanville.
Taylor declined, saying the union should be focused on minimizing adverse impacts to members, rather than lobbying to keep the prison open.
Hall said in his email that his proposal was formally served on Brown on Friday, Aug. 20.
The notice called on Brown to hold a special board meeting to consider the proposal. Brown hasn’t responded, Hall said.
“They’re trying to force me into a situation, but I have to call it and that determination has not been made yet,” Brown said in an interview.
Hall said a majority of the board has indicated support for holding a meeting to consider the proposal, which he said could still be changed.
Hall and Taylor said they plan to formally serve Brown again with the request, but if he continues to not respond, they could take legal action.
This story was originally published September 1, 2021 at 6:00 AM with the headline "SEIU Local 1000 board members move to strip union president of power, pick new leader."