Written by William Hekman
SEIU Local 1000 voted to remove newly elected President Richard Louis Brown of his powers on Sunday. Brown is fighting his removal and this could spark a major shakeup in California labor politics in the states largest employee union. Thirty-four of the sixty-five board members voted to remove Brown from his powers and transfer them to a board-selected chairperson. Brown took office on June 30th of 2021, when he beat Yvonne Walker by five points in their elections.
Brown quickly made a number of changes to SEIU which angered some longtime members who are politically connected. Brown distanced himself from Gavin Newsom during the recall election and was very critical of Newsom. He also promised to distance the union from political and social justice activities, “Those political social justice issues… there’s many people in Local 1000 who do not believe in Black Lives Matter, and I know black people who don’t believe in Black Lives Matter.” Brown, who is black, also said, “The Black Lives Matter movement, some people say it’s too political and it’s been hijacked and that it started in a good place, but it became too political.” Brown said that the reason the union has been so supportive of the Democratic Party is because it is “suffering from Stockholm syndrome”. Another major part of Brown’s platform was to increase membership and to get better job representation and security which he says the union has failed to do in the past.
Board members have claimed that Brown has damaged the reputation of the union and said that two harassment claims expedited his removal. Brown has called the removal illegitimate and said he will discipline those who violate their laws. Brown called the meeting a, “lynching with a carefully crafted castration to silence and destroy an outspoken educated Black man who has exposed the humongous hypocrisy of Local 1000”.
Brown is doing what he is supposed to be doing as President of the union, making sure his members are adequately represented and have protections. Unfortunately much of the longtime members who are politically entrenched want to remove Brown for doing his job and will go to great lengths to remove him from his position.
Photo Cred: Daniel Kim/ Sacramento Bee
