On Monday, January 26, Alameda Health System workers escalated their fight against layoffs. They packed an Alameda County Board of Supervisors Health Care Committee meeting, where dozens of members gave hours of passionate testimony alongside patients, doctors, and others.

First, AHS management gave a long presentation, and CEO James Jackson admitted the layoff notices his team had issued were a first resort, a decision made before coming to the County Board of Supervisors to explore options to solve the funding issues that the safety-net healthcare system will begin to see as of July 1, 2026. 

Among the SEIU 1021 members who spoke up was Drew Scott, a therapist at Fairmont Hospital’s Intensive Outpatient Program. “Closing our program would be devastating to our clients and our community. Our program is truly one of a kind. There is no other program like it in Alameda County that provides this level of comprehensive care to clients with severe mental illness. We help keep our clients out of psychiatric hospitals and living independently in the community. Case management, clubhouses and weekly therapy are no substitute for the kind of care we provide.

“A lot of our clients say that Fairmont is their home, it’s the reason they get up and out of bed in the morning. Many of them go to Fairmont to celebrate holidays because they don’t have anywhere else to go. A lot of them refer to it as their chosen family. We don’t just reduce symptoms, we give clients a life worth living. If our program were to close, our clients would end up decompensating and living in psychiatric hospitals or worse. Once hospitalized, if they don’t have anywhere to go when they get released, they end up in this vicious cycle where they get rehospitalized and retraumatized again and again. That of course costs the system more and has a devastating human cost as well. We are asking the board to rescind these layoffs and work with our union on real solutions. Cuts don’t heal, care does.”

Again and again, SEIU 1021 members called attention to problems these layoffs have caused: overflowing trash in the emergency room; cafeteria closed for workers and visitors on weekends; workers receiving layoff notices literally on shift; no medical interpreters on staff; John George Psychiatric Hospital, the county’s only emergency mental health care facility, being understaffed and unable to receive patients; and more.

As our employers start to see the effects of the brutal budget cuts imposed by a Republican Congress through HR 1, the Big Ugly Bill, fights like these will only become more common and more necessary. In the coming months and years, all of us will be called on to make a stand for our jobs and the vital services we provide to our communities.