Lopez

BACKGROUND

Factual Background Lopez began working as a corrections officer at Salinas Valley State Prison in 2002. She also volunteered as job steward for the California Correctional Peace Officers Association labor union.

2 In 2017, Lopez received a notice of adverse action and was suspended for discourteous behavior for comments she made to corrections officers Joshua P.1 and Jeffrey D., as detailed more fully below. According to Jeffrey D., after Lopez made her remarks, a correctional lieutenant ordered him and Joshua P. to write a memo reporting the incident. They did not want to do so, but they obeyed the order. Lopez originally was suspended for 24 days, but her penalty was first reduced to nine days and then to a letter of reprimand. She was surprised by the disciplinary action given “all the cussing that goes around the prison.” Because of the ubiquity of cursing in the prison, her discipline seemed to Lopez like a change in policy—one that she thought other employees should know about. Lopez “felt like [she] needed to let other Bargaining Unit 6 members know that the prison, one, is punishing people for cussing, and two, that they’re going really, really high on the…