Last Wednesday, July 8, Alameda Health System (AHS) workers celebrated their historic fight against layoffs.

As Chapter President Maria Betancourt said, “This win required each and every one of us. I want to thank everyone who signed a petition, everyone who came to a rally, everyone who came to Board of Trustees and Board of Supervisors meetings, over and over again, to hold our public institutions accountable for our patients. It’s because of you that we can say we fought and we won.”

Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley spoke to the rally, saying, in part, “Thank you for all you do! Continue the good work. I stand in solidarity with you and I’ll continue to stand in solidarity with you.” Supervisor Miley and Supervisor Nikki Bas spearheaded the Alameda County budget work that allowed AHS to rescind the layoffs, with strong support from Supervisors Marquez and Tam. A representative from Supervisor Bas’ office joined the rally.

When longtime AHS worker and East Bay Vice President Derrick Boutte took the mic, he said, “We look forward to continuing to work collectively together and supporting each other. We all know the impact that is coming with HR 1, threatening healthcare and threatening our jobs. But we were able to organize together and rally together and fight back against these layoffs. Whatever fight is in front of us, we can always come together collectively to fight the fight and make sure we are doing what’s right for this community.”

SEIU 1021 President Theresa Rutherford closed out the celebration, saying, “Today we’re here to celebrate the courage, the tenacity, the willingness to put yourselves out there to get what you need. We’re not just fighting for our paychecks. That’s important, but our work is always about the community. It’s about your neighbors. It’s about the person you walk past every day who is homeless, and needs care, and doesn’t have any other way to get it. This fight to prevent layoffs isn’t just a fight about keeping our jobs, it’s a fight about making sure services remain in the hospital. It’s about making sure that when someone shows up at the door, we’re there to deliver the care. That’s the power we have! We’re not just winning for ourselves, we’re winning for our communities and our neighbors!”

The fight isn’t over yet, though. Some of the jobs that were saved were only saved through October, and a new source of funding will need to be found for them, and the cruel, brutal cuts imposed by HR 1 are still coming. But this group at AHS has been through many battles together, from a strike at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic to this long, finally successful layoff battle, and they won’t concede jobs or care for Alameda County’s most vulnerable patients.

Chapter President Betancourt concluded by saying, “The struggle doesn’t end here. We’ll continue to fight for our Intensive Outpatient Psych program to remain open. We will not stop until every job is protected. Looking beyond this year, we will need to continue to fight for a restoration of Medicaid funding from Washington so we don’t have to keep fighting reductions in service and patching holes in our safety net.”