Alameda Health System is Alameda County’s safety-net healthcare system. It serves a low-income, mostly Black and brown population. In recent years, SEIU 1021 members have fought hard and won big there: a historic strike in late 2020, followed by a four-year contract with 20% in COLAs in 2024; free speech battles; and speaking up against corporate greed that keeps us from getting the healthcare we need. Unfortunately, they have to fight yet again. AHS management has prematurely panicked about the devastating Medicaid cuts coming from HR 1, the Big Ugly Bill Republicans rammed down America’s throat last year.

Even though AHS is not yet one one dollar short, management is taking scissors and razor blades to the public health safety net by issuing layoff notices. Shockingly, those first notices were scheduled to be delivered to workers on Christmas Eve.

Naturally, SEIU 1021 members immediately started fighting back, pushing the notices back until after the holidays and packing last week’s Board of Trustees meeting to testify for nearly two hours that AHS doesn’t need to make these cuts and the community won’t survive them.

One of the nearly hundred people to speak was SEIU 1021 VP of Organizing Jennifer Esteen, a former AHS Board of Trustees member, who said, ”These layoffs are premature. There is no reason for AHS to lay anyone off right now, unless it is to do what everyone has already explained: impact critical services and harm patients who are the most in need.”

This fight is just beginning. AHS members will be taking action in Sacramento and Oakland on Wednesday, January 14, and again on January 20. The funding cuts the Republican administration is imposing—so they can spend more money on masked ICE agents shooting civilians—will be hurting the public sector for years to come. We will all need to stick together and find innovative ways to fight back.

Read more about the fight in the East Bay Times and on CBS News. RSVP to help AHS fight here.