Alameda County Supervisors and SEIU 1021 Union Members Celebrate Major Victory for Public Health
Oakland, CA — One year after Donald Trump signed HR 1, the Big Ugly Bill, into law, SEIU 1021 members and Alameda County Supervisors will gather at Wilma Chan Highland Hospital on June 8 at 11 a.m. to celebrate a local win for public health, the recent Alameda County budget, passed unanimously by the Board, which included nearly 20 million dollars for Alameda Health System (AHS), money designated to prevent layoffs and extend an important outpatient behavioral health program through October 31.
Maria Betancourt, an Alameda Health System worker who serves as AHS Chapter President for SEIU 1021, said, “Our members deliver the frontline care that keeps our community thriving, from healing victims of car accidents and gunshots to delivering the babies that will be our community’s future. We should all be proud of the work we did to protect good union jobs that provide essential care for the whole East Bay. But we know that the struggle doesn’t end here. We will need to continue to fight for a restoration of Medicaid funding from Washington so that we don’t have to keep fighting reductions in service and patching holes in our safety net.”
Alameda Health System is the county’s safety-net healthcare system, which serves an overwhelmingly Black and brown population. More than 90% of its patients receive some form of subsided care, the need for which is expected to grow in coming years, with HR1’s massive cuts attacking Alameda County’s 160,000 Medi-Cal enrollees. HR 1, signed into law on July 4, 2025, cut over a trillion dollars from health programs nationwide. While most of these cuts are slated to take effect in 2027 and after, AHS management pre-emptively attempted to impose layoffs starting on Christmas Eve of 2025, claiming cost-cutting as justification.
AHS workers and community members spent the following months repeatedly going to AHS’s Board of Trustees to propose alternatives to the layoffs, noting repeatedly that the layoffs had been planned and executed entirely without medical input. When the Trustees and AHS management proved unwilling to change course, the community and workers found more willing partners on the Alameda County Board of Supervisors. Supervisors Bas and Miley initially recommended the County’s fund allocation to AHS to prevent layoffs, which the system’s Trustees eventually accepted.
- What: Victory Rally and Press Conference
- Who: Speakers including County Supervisors Miley (confirmed), Tam and Marquez (tentative) and representatives from Supervisor Bas’s office, SEIU 1021 President Theresa Rutherford, SEIU 1021 Vice President Derrick Boutte, SEIU 1021 AHS Chapter President Maria Betancourt, plus hundreds of SEIU 1021 workers from AHS and beyond
- Where: Wilma Chan Highland Hospital, E. 31st and Stuart, Oakland
- When: 11 a.m., July 8
Budget Info: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mwvmsrHHtglqIvycxE-UI1Dk32WkozEP/view
Budget Recommendation: https://alamedacountyca.gov/board/bos_calendar/documents/D4andD5AHSBoardLetter.pdf
HR 1 References:
- https://medicareadvocacy.org/impact-of-the-big-bill-on-medicare/
SEIU Local 1021 is a diverse, member-driven organization with members who work to make our cities, schools, colleges, counties, and special districts safe and healthy places to live and raise our families. We nurse our sick, educate our children, clean our schools, and care for our seniors and developmentally disabled.