{"id":463578,"date":"2026-09-14T18:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T18:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/463578\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T18:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T18:14:09","slug":"union-leader-behind-california-billionaires-tax-proposal-accused-of-threatening-harassing-women-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/463578\/","title":{"rendered":"Union leader behind California billionaires’ tax proposal accused of threatening, harassing women"},"content":{"rendered":"

The California labor leader behind a proposal to tax billionaires<\/a> has been accused of harassing and intimidating several women who work for an affiliated union.<\/p>\n

The allegations against Dave Regan, president of the SEIU United Healthcare Workers West, are detailed in an investigative report commissioned by SEIU California and obtained Friday by The Associated Press. It includes interviews with several current and former SEIU members and others who say Regan tried to intimidate union leaders into supporting the billionaires’ tax, which goes before voters in November.<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Times was the first to report<\/a> on the allegations.<\/p>\n

The report also includes allegations that Regan physically assaulted an SEIU leader more than 15 years ago amid a political dispute and that more recently he engaged in harassing behavior against other women who work for the organization.<\/p>\n

Regan acknowledged using curse words with union leaders but denied the physical assault allegation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will own up to and take responsibility for anything that I\u2019ve said and anything that I\u2019ve done,\u201d Regan said at a news conference. \u201cBut I absolutely am not going to stand by and … be expected to accept flat out lies.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ballot measure, Proposition 40, would impose a one-time, 5% tax on billionaires<\/a> living in the state to help backfill federal funding cuts to healthcare for low-income people. The proposal has caused a rift within the Democratic Party<\/a> and among labor unions that are typically aligned. While Regan’s union supports it, the larger SEIU California has not taken a position.<\/p>\n

The SEIU-UHW alleged that opponents of the measure worked to make public the report, which was labeled as being completed in June, in order to hurt the initiative’s chances of passing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe billionaires are trying to play us all, but we\u2019re not falling for it,\u201d the union said in a statement. \u201cWe want our healthcare and our money back. Tax the billionaires.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUnrelated verbal interactions spanning nearly two decades are being stitched together and stripped of context to manufacture a false narrative about the union\u2019s leadership,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n

SEIU California said it took action in response to the allegations to uphold values of respect, fairness and equity in the workplace.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ask members every day to stand up to power and speak out against abuses. We are inspired by their courage, and our leaders, too, are saying, \u2018Enough!\u2019\u201d the group said in a statement.<\/p>\n

According to the report, SEIU California executive director Tia Orr told investigators that Regan told her in December that the union needed to support the tax measure by Jan. 1 or \u201cI’m coming for you.\u201d Orr later told members that she felt unsafe, and she learned about other allegations of Regan threatening or berating female union leaders and staffers.<\/p>\n

SEIU California has filed charges against Regan with the SEIU International Union alleging a pattern of bullying, extortion and threats.<\/p>\n

The report also alleges Regan acted aggressively toward Courtni Pugh, the union’s former executive director, amid a political dispute sometime before she resigned in 2009. Pugh told investigators he yelled at her, kicked in her office door and backed her up against a bookcase. That followed Regan yelling expletives and telling her she was not tough enough for the job, the report said.<\/p>\n

SEIU-UHW called Pugh\u2019s allegations a \u201ctrumped-up claim from 17 years ago\u201d and noted that the political firm she works for has worked for groups opposing Proposition 40. Pugh did not immediately respond to a request for comment about her involvement with the ballot measure.<\/p>\n

But in a statement, she called Regan’s response \u201coffensive to the women and people who have had to endure his threatening behavior.\u201d She said she told colleagues about the incident at the time and it was well known around SEIU.<\/p>\n

\u201cI chose to participate in the investigation because I saw that his behavior had continued and in hopes that no one else would have to endure this kind of treatment from him,\u201d Pugh added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The California labor leader behind a proposal to tax billionaires has been accused of harassing and intimidating several…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-463578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}