Contact: Chris.Flink [at] seiu1021.org;  510.701.9637

Oakland, California — Hundreds of Alameda Health System workers will protest nearly 200 recent layoffs across the county’s safety-net healthcare system, lying on gurneys outside the legally required Beilenson Hearing on February 25 to illustrate the impact of the layoffs on hospital wait times and the availability of beds for patients. The layoffs have already sent workers home, placed on paid leave and instructed not to work, an inexplicable move for a management group claiming the layoffs are to save money.

WHAT: Alameda Health System ”THESE CUTS WON’T HEAL” Protest Before the Beilenson Hearing: 
Where: 1221 Oak St., Oakland (in front of Alameda County Admin Building)
When: Wednesday February 25, 2026, 1 p.m. 
Who: Workers on gurneys, plus hundreds of frontline healthcare workers, community members, and elected officials, including Board of Supervisors members Elisa Márquez and Nikki Fortunato Bas
Why: Layoffs in the County’s safety-net healthcare system will further weaken preventive care that keeps patients out of emergency rooms, raising wait times and reducing care across the county

Maria Betancourt is a specialist clerk at John George Psychiatric Hospital, and serves as the SEIU 1021 Alameda Health System chapter president. She herself received a layoff notice and is currently on paid leave. “We all remember the pandemic, but when I see mass layoffs across Alameda Health System, I realize that the lessons of that time have been forgotten. Jobs like mine are are vital for our communities, and cutting them puts us all at risk. What’s going to happen across Alameda County if the Board allows these cuts to go forward is that already busy emergency rooms will be overburdened and overflowing. Wait times will go up. Patients will be left on gurneys in hallways because there won’t be clean rooms and beds for them. Patients who are getting care that keeps them off the streets and out of John George or Santa Rita will lose that care and end up homeless, institutionalized, or dead. These cuts are choices, and the Board needs to understand the consequences of those choices and treat them appropriately.”

The Beilenson Hearing is required because Alameda Health System is proposing to close, eliminate and reduce many medical services, with nearly 200 layoffs currently in progress, affecting thousands of patients per year across the county. Programs slated for closure include Highland Hospital’s Outpatient Behavioral Health Wellness Program, Fairmont Hospital’s Outpatient Behavioral Health Programs, Health Advocate programs that help patients find social services and resources, virtual monitoring programs for patients who need one-on-one observation, and Fairmont Hospital’s retail cafeteria, serving visitors and employees at the facility. Full details of the layoffs are available here: https://www.alamedahealthsystem.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/§1442.5-Public-Notice_English-1.pdf 

These layoffs are system-wide, and will cut jobs including attending physicians, cafeteria workers, physician assistants, immunity health outreach workers, patient care assistants in the ICU, Environmental Services workers, and many other positions that directly support the patients who depend on Alameda Health System. Entire programs are on the chopping block, including the Intensive Outpatient Program at Fairmont Hospital, a program that provides major support and psychiatric care designed to keep patients in their communities, with improved life skills and reintegration into jobs and families. Without this program, patients will end up seeking care from emergency rooms or face reinstitutionalization or worse.

###

SEIU Local 1021 represents nearly 60,000 employees in local governments, nonprofit agencies, health care programs, courts, and schools throughout Northern California, including seven private colleges and numerous community colleges. 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.