by Bob Walsh
The kerfluffle within SEIU 1000, the largest state employee union in the formerly great state of California, has intensified.
The
union president, Richard L. Brown, and about 20 of his supporters, have
occupied the building and chained the doors closed. The three union
vice presidents have announced that they will take unspecified "legal
action" against Brown. They locked Brown out last week and changed the
locks, but he and his supporters managed to access the building during a
protest and chained the doors closed with themselves inside. (Probably
a fire code violation there somewhere.)
The
VPs also announced that a vote of the Board of Directors on Saturday
stripped Brown of most of his power and transferred them to board member
Bill Hall, who was elected Chairman of the 65-member board of
directors.
The California
Corporations Code has some process specifying how a member of the
general membership can be suspended, including requirements for advance
notice and an opportunity to be heard. The code is extremely
non-specific when it comes to suspended members of the board or other
officers.
The union employs roughly 100 people at it's Sacramento office. They are working from home just now.
Much
of Brown's support is coming from Lassen County. The God-Emperor of
California, Gavin Newsom, is attempting to close down one of the two
prisons in the county. These two prisons represent a HUGE amount of the
decent paying jobs in the county and loss of half of them would be a
huge blow to the county. Brown has vowed to fight the closure.
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