Saturday, September 12, 2026

Pasadena’s Assemblymember Harabedian Calls Allegations Against Dave Regan, Labor Leader Behind Billionaire Tax, “Abhorrent”

Pasadena Assemblymember John Harabedian

Union president Dave Regan denies the assault allegation detailed in union-commissioned investigations; his union calls the reports a politically motivated attack on Proposition 40

Pasadena’s Assemblymember John Harabedian said Friday, Sept. 11, that the “substantiated allegations” that Dave Regan, the labor leader behind California’s billionaire tax, harassed and intimidated women are “abhorrent,” after the Associated Press reported on a union-commissioned investigation.

The statement puts the Democrat, a former Sierra Madre mayor whose 41st Assembly District includes Pasadena, on record against the president of the Service Employees International Union United Healthcare Workers West. It comes less than two months before Proposition 40 — the one-time, 5% tax on the state’s billionaires that Regan’s union is backing — goes before voters in November. Regan has denied the physical assault allegation, and his union has called the reports a “misinformation campaign,” the Associated Press and Politico reported.

The allegations against Regan are detailed in an investigative report commissioned by SEIU California and obtained Sept. 11 by the Associated Press. The report includes interviews with several current and former SEIU members and others who say Regan tried to intimidate union leaders into supporting the billionaires’ tax, the AP reported. The Los Angeles Times was first to report the allegations.

“The substantiated allegations against Dave Regan are abhorrent,” Harabedian said in the statement issued by his office. “It is clear that we have a new generation of labor leaders who do not tolerate workplace harassment. I’m thankful to the SEIU California State Council for responding against the harassment and doing so quickly. Labor leaders who purport to protect their own workers from harassment and retaliation need to live by those standards. Anyone who doesn’t shouldn’t be in leadership.”

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 “I’m coming for you,” the AP reported, citing the report. Orr later told members that she felt unsafe.

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 toward other women who work for the organization, the AP reported. The report alleges Regan acted aggressively toward Courtni Pugh, the union’s former executive director, before she resigned in 2009; Pugh told investigators he yelled at her, kicked in her office door and backed her up against a bookcase.

SEIU California has filed charges against Regan with the SEIU International Union alleging a pattern of bullying, extortion and threats, the AP reported.

A law firm’s probe substantiated claims made in a February complaint that Regan sought to intimidate other labor leaders into endorsing the proposed wealth tax, and it found that a labor leader “reasonably” felt threatened, Politico reported after obtaining the report. The firm did not substantiate a second set of charges alleging that the allegations against Regan were an attempt to derail the tax and retaliate against him. The investigation took place between April and July 2026 and was conducted by the New York labor law firm Cohen, Weiss and Simon. The firm partially substantiated the allegations, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Regan acknowledged using curse words with union leaders but denied the physical assault allegation, the AP reported. “I will own up to and take responsibility for anything that I’ve said and anything that I’ve done,” Regan said at a news conference. “But I absolutely am not going to stand by and … be expected to accept flat out lies.”

Regan’s union alleged that opponents of the measure worked to make the report, which was labeled as completed in June, public in order to hurt the initiative’s chances of passing, the AP reported. “Unrelated verbal interactions spanning nearly two decades are being stitched together and stripped of context to manufacture a false narrative about the union’s leadership,” the union said in a statement. The union called Pugh’s allegations a “trumped-up claim from 17 years ago” and noted that the political firm she works for has worked for groups opposing Proposition 40. Pugh, in a statement, called Regan’s response “offensive to the women and people who have had to endure his threatening behavior.”

SEIU California said it took action in response to the allegations to uphold values of respect, fairness and equity in the workplace, the AP reported. “We 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, ‘Enough!'” the group said in a statement.

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

Regan’s union is a familiar name in Pasadena. As its president, he led the union in 2023 when health care workers at Kaiser Permanente, whose Southern California region is headquartered in Pasadena, went on strike over what the union called a short-staffing crisis. Harabedian, a former Sierra Madre councilmember and mayor, represents a district that also includes Sierra Madre, La Cañada Flintridge, Monrovia and Claremont.