SEIU 1021 members rally to protect healthcare as Trump’s big bad bill guts Medi-Cal
We have to fight corporate greed and protect healthcare for all of us
Hundreds of Alameda Health System workers and community members rallied today outside Oakland’s Wilma Chan Highland Hospital. They were speaking loudly and proudly about the cruel $1.2 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, and other programs that provide health and safety to millions of Americans. These cuts take money from working people through taxes in order to give huge tax cuts to ultra-wealthy corporations and individuals.
The cuts blow a $30 billion hole in California’s budget, and the effects of that are going to harm every single SEIU 1021 member. That’s why members were rallying to call on California’s elected officials to right this wrong and make corporations accountable. Corporations like Apple, Genentech, and Wells Fargo have raked in billions of dollars of profits, and it’s time they paid their fair share so that working people don’t fall behind.
At the rally, speakers including Alameda County Supervisors Nikki Fortunato Bas and Lena Tam addressed the crowd, saying “Corporate greed kills!” and decrying the “big, brutal bill.” As Michael Murray, a respiratory technician at Highland, said, “As union members, we’re used to looking at something, saying ‘that’s wrong, we have to fix it’ and stepping up. Well, this is wrong, and we need to fix it. We need healthcare, not wealth care!”
Longtime AHS worker and Vice President for the East Bay Derrick Boutte spoke as well: “Every elected official in California from Gavin Newsom on down needs to step up right now and show us which side they are on.”
President Theresa Rutherford closed out the event urging union members and allies to continue showing up and fighting back. Cries of “We’re FIRED UP! We won’t take it no more!” and “When we fight — we WIN” filled the air outside the hospital, as the hundreds in attendance made their voices heard.