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Alameda Health System layoffs deferred while county explores options A plan to slash 188 health care jobs at the East Bay’s safety net hospital would heavily impact mental health programs. County leaders hope to avoid this.
www.berkeleyside.org/2026/03/04/alameda-health-system-layoffs-deferred-county-supervisors
By Darwin BondGraham
March 4 2026 10:20 a.m.
Alameda County’s public hospital system, which includes the region’s main provider of mental health services and clinics serving thousands of low-income residents, has been spared layoffs — for now.
On Tuesday, the Alameda Health System and the county agreed to hold off on job cuts scheduled to take effect on March 9.
The plan would have included the closure of mental health programs at Highland Hospital and Fairmont Hospital, AHS’s ambulatory plastic surgery program, and Highland Hospital’s Complex Care Program, which provides care to patients with multiple, chronic illnesses, many of whom are homeless. Other closures would have included Fairmont Hospital’s Kitchen Retail program, which provides meals to staff and visitors, and Highland Hospital’s Tele-sitter program, which helps AHS staff remotely monitor patients’ wellbeing while they’re hospitalized.
The temporary pause buys the hospital system and the county time to try and figure out alternatives to layoffs, with the goal of minimizing impacts on health care services.
Supervisors Nate Miley and Nikki Fortunato Bas will lead the effort through an ad hoc committee of the supervisors, working with AHS, labor representatives, and other stakeholders.
“I’m greatly encouraged by the feedback we’ve received from the supervisors and the partnership we’ve experienced with the county,” said AHS CEO James Jackson at yesterday’s meeting.
“Alameda County patients and their families deserve a healthcare system that’s clean, safe, and well-staffed, a place where they can get the care they need and won’t go hungry when they visit,” Maria Betancourt, a specialist clerk at John George and the current AHS Chapter President for SEIU 1021 said in a statement. “It has been a long fight to get to this point, but this is a great step for our members and for healthcare in Alameda County. As the federal cuts approach, we will work with the Board and others to find every avenue to protect public healthcare and preserve jobs against these attacks.”
Jackson said the AHS trustees, the board that directly governs the hospital system, will meet Wednesday to further discuss delaying the layoffs and the plan to find savings.
Federal health care cuts to blame
The Alameda Health System is facing a massive drop in revenues because of H.R. 1, the “Big Beautiful Bill” passed by the Republican-controlled Congress last year.
That bill massively reduced funding for Medicaid, the insurance program that public hospitals like AHS heavily rely on. It imposed other cuts and requirements that amount to an unprecedented $1 trillion reduction in health care spending nationwide by the federal government.
“We should all keep in mind that the reason we’re all here is largely, exclusively because of H.R. 1,” Supervisor David Haubert said Tuesday.
Anticipating a $30 million drop in revenue this year and a $100 million budget hole in 2027, AHS leaders confirmed in December that they were looking at eliminating as many as 372 positions, including nurses, therapists, doctors, housekeeping staff, and other roles. In January, AHS published a plan scaling back the layoffs to about 188 positions. Hospital staff said at the time that even this level of cuts would significantly harm their ability to care for patients.
Exploring options to avoid staff reductions
On Feb. 25, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors signaled they were willing to work with AHS on solutions. At Tuesday’s meeting, the supervisors unanimously voted to identify alternative, non-patient-facing positions that could be cut to address the system’s budget shortfall.
Under the new plan, which wasn’t described in much detail, the county, county auditor, and AHS will examine behavioral health contract payments that could be reduced. Currently, the county and AHS have dozens of contracts with nonprofits to provide behavioral health services.
They also want to scrutinize AHS’s finances and potentially make adjustments to how AHS can borrow money from the county.
And county leaders said they will look into alternative service models with respect to the system’s intensive outpatient program, all with an eye toward saving money and avoiding staff layoffs.
The supervisors will hold another meeting on March 17 to report back.
Alameda Health System layoffs deferred while county explores options
www.berkeleyside.org
A plan to slash health care jobs at Alameda County’s safety net hospital would impact mental health programs. Leaders hope to avoid this.
Twenty-eight unionized NELP staffers — 80% of the staff union — have been laid off since mid-February-President and CEO Rebecca Dixon and COO Melissa Matos, should resign
nelpstaffassociation.medium.com/stand-with-the-nelp-staff-association-against-union-busting-and-l…
The NELP Staff Association, together with NOLSW/UAW Local 2320, has launched a letter campaign calling for accountability for the mass layoffs and union-busting that have devastated NELP’s staff and programs.
Twenty-eight unionized NELP staffers — 80% of the staff union — have been laid off since mid-February. NELP management chose to retain recently hired, non-union staff over long-tenured unionized staff. Today, NELP’s 20-person staff consists of 8 union positions and 12 management positions.
The mass layoffs have hollowed out a vital workers’ rights institution. NELP’s immigrant worker justice, worker center support, climate justice, fair chance employment, and health and safety programs are now gutted. It is unclear how NELP’s programmatic work can continue.
It didn’t have to be this way. Choices made by management and the board brought NELP to this financial crisis. We demand accountability for what has happened to NELP.
Please take a moment to send letters through actionnetwork.org to NELP’s board members and NELP’s executive team calling for the following:
(1) NELP’s executive team, led by President and CEO Rebecca Dixon and COO Melissa Matos, should resign or be removed from their positions immediately, and new interim leadership should be appointed by the board; and
(2) Thereafter, NELP’s board of directors — including Chair Raj Nayak and members Jennifer Epps, Rakeen Mabud, Elissa McBride, Amy Morris, Matt Morrison, Yona Rozen, and Amy Sugimori — should themselves step down for their role in allowing NELP to be led into an existential crisis under their watch.
Please go to the Action Network page and send letters from there.
Thank you.
Best,
Karín Umfrey
(she/ella)
Managing Attorney & Policy Advocacy Director, Worksafe
Take Action Against Union-Busting and Layoffs at NELP
NELP Staff Union
Support the NELP Staff Association in demanding accountability
The NELP Staff Association, together with NOLSW/UAW Local 2320, has launched a letter campaign calling for accountability for the mass layoffs and union-busting that have devastated NELP’s staff and programs.
Twenty-eight unionized NELP staffers — 80% of the staff union — have been laid off since mid-February. NELP management chose to retain recently hired, non-union staff over long-tenured unionized staff. Today, NELP’s 20-person staff consists of 8 union positions and 12 management positions.
The mass layoffs have hollowed out a vital workers’ rights institution. NELP’s immigrant worker justice, worker center support, climate justice, fair chance employment, and health and safety programs are now gutted. It is unclear how NELP’s programmatic work can continue.
It didn’t have to be this way. Choices made by management and the board brought NELP to this financial crisis. We demand accountability for what has happened to NELP.
Please take a moment to send letters through actionnetwork.org to NELP’s board members and NELP’s executive team calling for the following:
(1) NELP’s executive team, led by President and CEO Rebecca Dixon and COO Melissa Matos, should resign or be removed from their positions immediately, and new interim leadership should be appointed by the board; and
(2) Thereafter, NELP’s board of directors — including Chair Raj Nayak and members Jennifer Epps, Rakeen Mabud, Elissa McBride, Amy Morris, Matt Morrison, Yona Rozen, and Amy Sugimori — should themselves step down for their role in allowing NELP to be led into an existential crisis under their watch.
Go to the Action Network page and send letters from here: actionnetwork.org/letters/nelpunion?source=direct_link&
Thank you for your support!
Take Action Against Union-Busting and Layoffs at NELP
nelpstaffassociation.medium.com
Support the NELP Staff Association in demanding accountability
UCSF Chancellor Sam Hawgood Protested by UCSF UPTE Workers For Lack Of Safety On The Job
youtu.be/qfiTNTgjh1E
Hundreds of UPTE CWA UCSF healthcare workers rallied on March 5, 2026 at the Mission Bay campus to protest the continuing health and safety crisis after the murder of UPTE UCSF social worker clinician Alberto Rangel at San Francisco General Ward 86.
Workers reported that they are still fearful of going to work because of safety concerns. According to workers and the union, the UCSF chancellor Sam Hawgood refuses to even meet with the union and workers about the continuing health and safety
problems at SF General Ward 86 and other locations in the City. UTPE social worker clinician Allejandro Alvarez spoke at the rally about his effort to help Rangel after the attack and his continued stress and trauma as a result of this incident. He also reported that workers in the incident are having to fight for treatment from UCSF and can only use their workers comp which is inadequate. UCSF chancellor
Hawgood makes over $1 million a. year and UC executives regularly receive massive bonuses approved by the UC Regents who including Governor Gavin Newsom and other ex-officio Democratic officials.
UCSF and Hawgood have also ordered UCSF workers not to talk about the issues of health and safety since they say there are legal proceedings. This is an unfair labor practice and illegal under Federal laws which protect health and safety whistleblowers. No unfair labor practice charges have been filed against UC for their illegal threats to silence workers.
The unions also demanded that there be parity wages between the UC social workers at the hospitals and at community centers where they are paid less. The UPTE leadership had dropped the demand for parity wages for UPTE clinician social workers in the last contract negotiations and this two tier system is angering UPTE members. UPTE social worker clinicians are also in greater danger because of threats and attacks yet they are paid less than UPTE clinicians in UC hospitals who don't face the same dangers.
At the same time the growing healthcare crisis and cutbacks in Medicaid and the ending of subsidies of ACA is already affecting patients at UCSF and other healthcare facilities.
Additional Media:
Murder At SFGH: UCSF UPTE CWA Workers & Supporters Rally After UPTE CWA Member Alberto Rangel Is Killed
youtu.be/1JpEMgHUZSk
UPTE CWA Safety Survey At UCSF
upte.org/ucsfsurvey
SF health workers say they fear hospital stabbing ‘can happen … to any of us’
www.sfexaminer.com/news/public-health/alberto-rangel-stabbing-sfgh-hospital-safety/article_4d983a…
SF Gen Hospital Workers Fed Up With Short Staffing Threaten Patient Safety
youtu.be/2-mA-9oVb-M
UC Bosses & Regents Attacking Workers & Destroying UC Healthcare System Threatening Patients & Lives
youtu.be/0FIx-0fYTKc
Stop The Attacks! SEIU 1021 Members Speak Out At CCSF Civil Service Commission On Retaliation & Discrimination
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMZJlCt–t0&t=6s
C UPTE & AFSCME 3299 Workers Strike At UC Mission Bay & Want Living Wages & An End To Union Busting
youtu.be/WaYOuTX1Os8
UCSF AFSCME 3299 & UPTE Workers Strike For Living Wages & Workers Also Speak Out On Palestine & UC
youtu.be/RGrFpEfjB5A
The UC Strike & Palestine: Calling Out UC CWA UPTE Bureaucrats Attack On Democracy Over Palestine
youtu.be/1SGPYIT38wI
WorkWeek
soundcloud.com/workweek-radio
Production of Labor Video Project
www.labormedia.net
UPTE CWA UCSF Social Workers Speak Out For Safety On The Job & Equal Wages For Equal Work
youtu.be/XWzV75CbkT0
UPTE CWA UCSF social workers rallied on 3/5/26 with hundreds of members at UCSF Mission Bay campus
to protest the murder of a member at San Francisco general, the lack of health and safety and also the fight
for equal wages with other social workers.
Two of the social workers who worked on Ward 68 at San Francisco General Hospital also talked about the
incident and the refusal of the UCSF management to rectify their conditions and health problems directly
as a result of the murder of a colleague.
They reported that the Chancellor of UCSF continues to refuse to even meet with the union and workers to
discuss the incident and what UCSF management is planning to do about it. UCSF bosses also issued a
statement warning that no UCSF worker can speak publicly about the health and safety condition because
there were legal cases pending.
The attempt to silence workers about health and safety problems is an unfair labor practice snd a violation of
Federal labor law.
Additional Media:
Murder At SFGH: UCSF UPTE CWA Workers & Supporters Rally After UPTE CWA Member Alberto Rangel Is Killed
youtu.be/1JpEMgHUZSk
SF health workers say they fear hospital stabbing ‘can happen … to any of us’
www.sfexaminer.com/news/public-health/alberto-rangel-stabbing-sfgh-hospital-safety/article_4d983a…
SF Gen Hospital Workers Fed Up With Short Staffing Threaten Patient Safety
youtu.be/2-mA-9oVb-M
UC Bosses & Regents Attacking Workers & Destroying UC Healthcare System Threatening Patients & Lives
youtu.be/0FIx-0fYTKc
Stop The Attacks! SEIU 1021 Members Speak Out At CCSF Civil Service Commission On Retaliation & Discrimination
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMZJlCt–t0&t=6s
C UPTE & AFSCME 3299 Workers Strike At UC Mission Bay & Want Living Wages & An End To Union Busting
youtu.be/WaYOuTX1Os8
UCSF AFSCME 3299 & UPTE Workers Strike For Living Wages & Workers Also Speak Out On Palestine & UC
youtu.be/RGrFpEfjB5A
The UC Strike & Palestine: Calling Out UC CWA UPTE Bureaucrats Attack On Democracy Over Palestine
youtu.be/1SGPYIT38wI
Production Of Labor Video Project
www.labormedia.net
www.labormedia.net
What French Romance Novels Could Tell Us About A.I. and Translation Jobs Popular paperbacks are being translated with the help of machines, raising anxiety among professionals in the field. ww…
After 15 YearsTEPCO planning to send probe into Fukushima nuke reactor
www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/16341286
By TOMOYUKI SUZUKI/ Staff Writer
March 4, 2026 at 07:00 JST
The Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant’s No. 2 reactor in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, as seen from an Asahi Shimbun helicopter in February 2025 (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
Photo_Illutration.jpeg
Tokyo Electric Power Co. will soon launch a probe, the first of its kind, into the pressure vessel at one of the hobbled reactors at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant to scope out the current conditions.
The effort is part of TEPCO's long-standing goal of retrieving melted nuclear fuel debris, left in the aftermath of the triple reactor meltdowns following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.
TEPCO officials said they are planning to insert a camera-equipped fiberscope into the plant’s No. 2 reactor to shoot footage and measure radiation levels during the first half of fiscal 2026 between April and September.
An estimated 880 tons of fuel debris remain inside the No. 1, 2 and 3 reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 plant.
TEPCO plans to approach the contaminated debris, which remains in the pressure vessels, from the tops of the reactor buildings and pulverize the debris to reduce the volume and collect it by sucking it from the side or by other means.
TEPCO officials are hoping, during the planned probe, to monitor the interior of the pressure vessel visually and ascertain the radiation levels on a location-by-location basis to help work out concrete methods for retrieving the fuel debris.
The fiberscope to be used in the probe, which resembles an endoscope, will be inserted into the pressure vessel from the side through piping.
The officials said they will be probing not the core part of the vessel but the outer side of a shroud of stainless steel, which has been installed to surround nuclear fuel, to determine, among other things, if the shroud has been deformed and if there is any debris in sight.
They said they will conduct mock-up drills in the days and months to come. They added that they will take measures to block air from leaking from the pressure vessel’s interior so workers will not be exposed to radiation.
The probe was initially scheduled to begin in fiscal 2024, but the work has been delayed because the development of a dosimeter-equipped fiberscope and other processes have turned out to be more time-consuming than expected.
“When the distribution of dose levels is known, that could, depending on the circumstances, help give an estimate of the amount of residual fuel (which has yet to turn into debris),” said Akira Ono, president of TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Decontamination & Decommissioning Engineering Co., which is overseeing the corresponding processes at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
TEPCO plans to start large-scale retrieval of the Fukushima No. 1 plant’s debris at its No. 3 reactor in fiscal 2037 or later.
The dose levels and circumstances of the areas surrounding the reactor buildings are not the same for the No. 1, 2 and 3 reactors.
TEPCO officials said they have set a target date of 2027 for studying the design of debris removal equipment and other specifics for those reactors.
www.asahi.com
Tokyo Electric Power Co. will soon launch a probe, the first of its kind, into the pressure vessel at one of the hobbled reactors at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant to scope out the current co…
Union Bureaucrats Unite With Fascists To Defend Working Class Against AI?
Inside the secret meeting that led to the AI political resistance
The AI political resistance has arrived
www.theverge.com
Inside the secret meeting that united the AFL-CIO, the Congress of Christian Leaders, the Progressive Democrats of America, and Steve Bannon.
Florida now close to dealing death blow to public worker unions
www.yahoo.com/news/articles/florida-now-close-dealing-death-100834339.html
James Call, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida
Tue, March 3, 2026 at 2:08 AM PST
A labor union bill backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Koch-backed Freedom Foundation that opponents say represents “the final nail in the coffin” for Florida unions is headed for the Senate floor.
Teachers, nurses, electricians, plumbers, doctors and sanitation workers packed a committee room March 2 to testify against the measure. Meantime, Education Commissioner Anastasios "Stasi" Kamoutsas was seen huddling with four district school superintendents who testified for the measure. The Fiscal Policy panel ultimately voted to send it to the Senate floor on a 10–8 vote.
This year's measure (SB 1296) fundamentally changes the rules for how public sector unions are certified to represent workers. The bill mandates labor unions must have approval of 50% plus one of all workers in the bargaining unit, including those who do not vote to maintain certification.
In a 3-hour hearing, workers argued that the 50%-plus-one requirement creates an unfair standard not employed in any other kind of election. It effectively counts non-votes as “no” votes and makes union certification more difficult.
Sen. Jonathan Martin stands for the pledge of allegiance during opening day of the Florida legislative session Tuesday, March 4, 2025..jpeg
Sen. Jonathan Martin stands for the pledge of allegiance during opening day of the Florida legislative session Tuesday, March 4, 2025.
Sen. Jonathan Martin, R-Fort Myers, the bill’s sponsor, said his intent is to make union leaders more responsive.
“It forces the union presidents, the union leadership, to go out and say, ‘Guys, give me the vote. I know you haven’t shown up in the past. I know you don’t normally care but let me tell you why I can help you.’ And then if they fail, the voters can hold them accountable,” Martin said.
The measure is modeled after laws in Wisconsin and Iowa where government workers must recertify their unions annually through a majority vote of the entire bargaining unit. The requirement creates a bureaucratic bind for labor: To avoid decertification, unions there focus on voter turnout in the union elections over other issues and organizing.
“What this bill does is try to destroy a teachers' union and to cut the right for free public education. And that we cannot do,” Sen. Mack Bernard, D-Palm Beach, said.
Although the measure covers all public sector unions, or 1.17 million workers, with teachers making up about 156,000 of the total, Martin this legislative session has focused on public school teachers.
The Florida Education Association and United Faculty of Florida have long been thorns in the side of Republicans. The classroom teachers and university professors opposed initiatives that expanded parental rights in schools, restricted how sex, gender, and equality are discussed in the classroom, and the availability of vouchers to pay for private schools and home schooling.
The bill carried by Martin is part of the Freedom Foundation’s campaign to eliminate public sector labor unions. The Koch-backed free market think tank argues on its website that “government unions are a root cause of every growing national dysfunction in America.” The foundation helped write the measure.
Senator Shevrin Jones applauds as President of the Senate Wilton Simpson finishes his opening statement to the Florida Senate during the opening day of the 2022 Florida Legislative Session Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2022..jpeg
Senator Shevrin Jones applauds as President of the Senate Wilton Simpson finishes his opening statement to the Florida Senate during the opening day of the 2022 Florida Legislative Session Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2022.
More
When Sen. Shevrin Jones, D-Miami Gardens, asked Martin if he shared its hostility to labor unions, Martin pivoted to criticism of Lee County teachers for suing the school district over an incentive program giving bonuses to high performing teachers who agreed to transfer to low-performing schools.
“What I saw in southwest Florida disgusted me. We had kids who have one shot at the American dream and teachers in Lee County getting in the way of those kids’ success and opportunity,” Martin said.
The measure is a follow up to the 2023’s SB 256 which requires 60% of union members to pay dues to maintain certification. That bill resulted in the decertification of more than 120 local chapters representing more than 70,000 public sector workers.
Sen. Corey Simon smiles as the FAMU Marching 100 are applauded for their performance of the National Anthem on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026..jpeg
Sen. Corey Simon smiles as the FAMU Marching 100 are applauded for their performance of the National Anthem on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026.
Sen. Corey Simon, R-Tallahassee, offered an amendment that once a union chapter is decertified it would effectively need 15% of the workers in a bargaining unit to become recertified. Martin accepted that amendment without reviewing it: “I’m sure it’s fine,” he told Simon.
“This bill needs work. It needs a lot of work,” Simon told Martin. “I’m going to vote up on this bill today … if I can get your word that we can continue to work through this process and get a bill that is a little bit more sensible.”
James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jcall@tallahassee.com. Follow on him X: @CallTallahassee.
Florida now close to dealing death blow to public worker unions
www.yahoo.com
A Florida bill backed by Gov. DeSantis and the Freedom Foundation could make it harder for public sector unions to certify.
Mayor Lurie tells S.F. departments to plan for 500 job cuts as labor battles intensify
www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/lurie-unions-tough-fights-21941808.php
By J.D. Morris,
Staff Writer
March 3, 2026
Mayor Daniel Lurie chats with children on the second day of SFUSD teacher’s strike at an after-school enrichment center that has extended its hours to accommodate families in reaction to the strike.
Mayor Daniel Lurie chats with children on the second day of SFUSD teacher’s strike at an after-school enrichment center that has extended its hours to accommodate families in reaction to the strike.
Camille Cohen/For the S.F. Chronicle
Mayor Daniel Lurie was already in a tough spot with San Francisco labor unions Monday when his administration delivered a sobering message: City Hall needs to eliminate hundreds of jobs.
At least 500 positions are on the chopping block as the city seeks to reduce its spending on salary and benefits by $100 million, according to Lurie’s budget director Sophia Kittler. She told departments in an email that San Francisco “cannot afford to sustain current spending on personnel costs” as it works to eliminate the recurring deficitsthat have plagued the city since the pandemic.
Read more: How antisemitic heckling and a tweet by S.F. Mayor Lurie turned into a firestorm
Also: Here are the influential people S.F. Mayor Daniel Lurie spent time with during his first year in office
Related: Mayor Daniel Lurie’s wife, Becca Prowda, unveils her most public initiative as S.F. first lady
Kittler’s message was a clear sign that labor issues are becoming increasingly urgent for Lurie. And the mayor probably can’t meet the needed reduction in workforce expenses by cutting only vacant jobs: Kittler said that based on current vacancy rates, “meeting this target requires eliminating filled positions.”
Public-sector unions would inevitably resist such a move, underscoring how labor conflict is a central issue for the Lurie administration this year. While San Francisco public school teachers just ratified a new contract after concluding their first strike in nearly 50 years, the mayor is now staring down several major fights that are expected to test his relationship with union leaders like never before. Lurie played a supporting role in the teachers strike, since City Hall doesn’t manage the school district, but he’ll be much more involved in the battles to come.
Chief among them is the next city budget, which Lurie must propose by early June. The same month, San Francisco voters will decide on a business tax measure that is championed by public-sector labor groups but opposed by Lurie. This fall, organized labor may resist part of Lurie’s plan to reform the City Charter — the document that shapes how San Francisco governs itself.
Already this year, the Lurie administration is negotiating new contracts with the unions for San Francisco police officers and firefighters. Next year, he’ll need to do the same with unions representing an even larger swath of City Hall’s 34,000-person workforce.
How Lurie navigates each of those hurdles will help answer important questions about the rest of his term. Will he maintain productive relationships with labor leaders, despite disagreements over some issues such as the June ballot measure to raise taxes on companies with high-paid executives? Or will Lurie struggle to find areas of agreement with unions and allow labor groups to become reliable opponents of his plans?
Taken together, these conflicts could heavily influence how effective Lurie is at delivering on his plans to put the city on firm financial footing and make City Hall more accountable and efficient.
So far, the mayor is taking a diplomatic stance with the unions.
“I believe labor cares deeply about this city, just like I do. Sometimes we have different ways of getting to the end goal, but I feel very confident in my ability to work with labor,” Lurie told the Chronicle in a recent interview. “They are looking out for the best interests of their members and the city, and we are going to find common ground wherever we can.”
Lurie’s connections to organized labor are thin, given that he was a nonprofit founder who had never held public office before he was elected. An heir to the Levi Strauss denim fortune, Lurie spent millions of dollars of his own money on the 2024 mayor’s race, which he won despite scant backing from local unions. San Francisco labor groups have organizing power and financial resources they have historically tapped into to help propel the candidates and causes they support — and sink the ones they don’t.
“I don’t think he has a feel for these things in the way that previous mayors (did),” said John Logan, a labor studies professor at San Francisco State University. “It’s very unusual to become mayor of a city like San Francisco and have almost zero background in these issues.”
Logan said Lurie will find it increasingly difficult to implement his priorities if he views labor as an obstacle to his agenda rather than a potential partner.
“Whether he likes it or not, he can’t walk away from these unions. They are here. He has to deal with them,” Logan said. “He might think that they’re not the answer to the city’s problems but … his administration is going to have to learn how to engage.”
Lurie got his first taste of a big San Francisco labor dispute in the weeks between his election and inauguration.
As Lurie was transitioning into the mayor’s office, union workers were noisily picketing outside several of the largest hotels in San Francisco. The labor dispute threatened to cause problems during two major events set to bring thousands of visitors to the city in the early months of Lurie’s term. So Lurie reached out to hotel owners and was credited with helping to end a strike that dragged on for about three months.
Lurie told the Chronicle in his recent interview that the hotel strike reinforced the importance of getting “the right people and the right parties to the table.” He said he applied that lesson to the teachers strike, when he tried to facilitate discussion between the union and district leadership.
“It really felt like they were talking past each other” at first, Lurie said.
Lurie also relied on a circle of key advisers in the days leading up to and during the teachers strike. The list included two of his top aides: Chief of Staff Staci Slaughter and Kunal Modi, his chief of health and human services. Carol Isen, the director of the city’s Department of Human Resources, was also involved, as was Steve Kawa, a consultant who was an aide to former San Francisco mayors Willie Brown, Gavin Newsom and Ed Lee.
Those advisers each brought “different areas of expertise” to the table and frequently updated Lurie on how negotiations were progressing, he said. The mayor twice in one day stepped out of events related to the Super Bowl to get briefings about the talks. He also took separate Feb. 6 meetings with the head of the teacher’s union and the district superintendent, and his office secured space for the two sides to negotiate in person at the War Memorial Veterans Building.
Cassondra Curiel, president of the teachers union, said the building access was “entirely the mayor’s doing” and she was “very appreciative” of that.
Lurie said he was “trying to play a neutral role.”
“I did not want to put my thumb on the scale,” he said. “My job wasn’t to tell the two parties where to land.”
Lurie also learned the limits of his influence during the teachers strike. He spoke by phone to Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi on Feb. 8 — Super Bowl Sunday — and the two politicians subsequently urged the union and district to keep talking for another three days instead of going through with the walkout. But the union did not delay the strike, which kicked off the next morning.
The strike concluded in four days, sparing Lurie from the political pain he would have faced if public schools were closed for a more protracted period. But Lurie’s labor issues are far from over.
In three months, voters will determine the fate of a union-backed measure that would raise San Francisco’s “overpaid executive” tax on large companies with generously compensated CEOs. Lurie has been critical of that proposal, warning that it could hurt San Francisco’s business climate.
Hoping to avoid a costly ballot battle between the public-sector unions supporting that measure and the business interests supporting their own competing measure, Lurie had urged both sides to find a compromise. When they did not, he came out against both the union- and business-backed measures.
It’s unclear how large a role Lurie will play in the campaigns over those measures as the June 2 election draws closer. Regardless, he will spend much of the next few months focused on another issue that’s top of mind for the city’s labor movement: the city budget. In December, the mayor told city departments to help him find $400 million in cuts from the general fund as he prepared to close a nearly $900 million two-year deficit in his next spending plan.
Lurie has to propose the budget by June 1, and unions are bracing for the mayor to seek layoffs. That likelihood appeared to increase because of the Monday message from Kittler, Lurie’s budget director, who told departments that the proposals they’d already submitted would achieve less than a quarter of the necessary reductions to salary and benefit costs. Kittler encouraged departments to find savings by paring back their management structure, trimming staffing for special projects, reducing overtime and getting rid of non-essential programs.
Last year, Lurie proposed cutting about 100 filled jobs from the city payroll, but the number was ultimately reduced to about 40 in the deal that city supervisors negotiated with the Lurie administration. This year’s budget shortfall is even worse than last year’s, partly due to federal funding cuts under the Trump Administration.
Rudy Gonzalez, secretary-treasurer of the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council, acknowledged in an interview that the upcoming budget negotiations are an area where Lurie might meet strong resistance from labor. But Gonzalez said he’d so far found Lurie’s administration “pretty reasonable to work with” overall. The building trades council is supporting a new policy Lurie proposed to cut a local tax on large real estate transactions in an attempt to boost housing production.
“I don’t feel the need to pound my fist on the table to get the mayor to take me seriously,” Gonzalez said. “(His aides) seem to be able to chew gum and walk at the same time, and recognize that policy disagreements are just that — they don’t have to be personal.”
Lurie is expected to get broad labor support for one of his top political priorities for the year: passing a November parcel tax to prevent massive service cuts at Muni. But in the same election, he’ll also be asking voters for permission to overhaul the City Charter. Labor leaders have already expressed skepticism about one of the main reforms under consideration: making it harder for measures to qualify for the ballot.
“I can take it and I welcome it,” Lurie told the Chronicle about upcoming potential conflicts with unions. “We do not have to be on the same page on every issue. That is not the goal here. The goal is to be at the table talking and working through issues that we have together.”
Mayor Lurie tells S.F. departments to plan for 500 job cuts as labor battles intensify
www.sfchronicle.com
The mayor is staring down a series of high-profile political fights and negotiations that will test his relationship with union leaders like never before.
SoftBank’s Ohio power plant delivers an AI sticker shock
Trump's big, expensive power plants may not solve surging AI-driven electricity demand
www.japantimes.co.jp/commentary/2026/03/03/japan/softbanks-ohio-power-plant-ai-sticker-shock/
This former GM and Foxconn factory in Lordstown, Ohio, seen here in October, is set to be converted by SoftBank for data center equipment manufacturing..jpeg
This former GM and Foxconn factory in Lordstown, Ohio, seen here in October, is set to be converted by SoftBank for data center equipment manufacturing. | BLOOMBERG
BY LIAM DENNING
BLOOMBERG
Mar 3, 2026
U.S. President Donald Trump famously likes to build big things — or at least have others build big things to which he can attach his name. True to form, his latest solution to the gathering crisis on the largest U.S. power grid involves constructing what would be the biggest power plant in the country and among the biggest gas-fired projects in the world. The associated White House fact sheet led with the gargantuan aspect.
As a sheet of facts, it was light on them. Along with the plant being pitched as part of Japan’s supposed $550 billion investment pledge to avoid higher tariffs, which themselves just got kiboshed by the Supreme Court, that suggests this project may be more imagined than real. Also, neither the regional grid operator nor regulators in Ohio were seemingly aware of plans for a 9.2-gigawatt plant that alone would boost the state’s power output by more than a third, which adds to the general blurriness.
But there was one useful factoid: a $33 billion price tag. Useful in the sense of demonstrating the inflation problem embedded in power bills.
The headline figure implies a cost of nearly $3,600 per kilowatt of capacity (Note: There is no breakdown of the $33 billion price tag). Combined-cycle gas turbines cost an average of just over $1,000 per kW in 2023, according to Bloomberg NEF, and just over $2,000 in 2025. Demand for turbines has surged alongside demand forecasts for electricity, linked to the proliferation of data centers chasing artificial intelligence. The backlog for new turbines has stretched to four years or more and an indicative price above $3,000 would represent a new level in surge pricing.
As it was, the cost advantage that natural gas enjoyed relative to other types of generation had been eroding. The levelized cost of electricity — which measures the cost per unit of energy of building and running a new power plant across its lifetime — for gas-fired power in the U.S. jumped by 48% in the second half of 2025, year over year, according to Bloomberg NEF’s latest analysis.
Using my own assumptions for fuel costs and the discount rate, among other things, the new Ohio plant’s levelized cost comes out at about $75 to $80 per megawatt-hour. That is well above prevailing average futures for the PJM grid of less than $60. Moreover, add in transmission fees of around $15 to $20 per MWh, and the all-in cost of delivered power approaches $100, similar to the estimated prices that Big Tech has paid for supply contracts with several nuclear plants in the region. (Of course, unlike the nuclear reactors, a gas plant also emits carbon dioxide, which in this case would equate to another $17.50 per MWh if it were priced at $50 per ton.)
Leaving aside the likelihood of this apparently Softbank-led, Japanese-funded gas-fired behemoth actually springing up in Ohio, those economics are a clanging alarm bell for Trump, Midwestern residents and Big Tech alike. To date, the majority of inflation in utility bills relates to the capitalized costs of building distribution networks, not generation. A big pickup in the latter would compound the problem.
If the demand for powering artificial intelligence really is set to spiral, then building more generation, including higher-priced gas-plants and even new nuclear reactors, is unavoidable. But the underlying message of Trump’s big beautiful burner is that the old model of just building giant power plants to meet whatever new peak demand forecast we dream up is unsustainable — economically, environmentally and politically.
While hyperscalers clearly are willing to pay up for power, locking in large slugs of expensive, carbon-emitting new supply for decades presents a risk to both them and ordinary ratepayers, especially if AI demand turns out to be less than advertised. As it is, new supply commitments reported by utilities are running far ahead of consensus data center demand forecasts, especially through the end of this decade, according to Andy DeVries of CreditSights.
This inherent uncertainty suggests the smarter option would be to hedge with a more modular approach favoring smaller gas plants as well as faster-to-build renewables and batteries; build smaller and then see, rather than big and just hope.
Moreover, when gas power is starting to be priced like nuclear power, data center developers and utilities should be thinking more creatively about demand management — avoiding using grid power for a handful of hours per year in order to shave the peaks in power consumption down rather than simply chasing those peaks with ever more expensive and underutilized capacity. "Uberizing" the grid in this way means using existing infrastructure more productively, as opposed to simply building, building, building — whatever the president’s proclivities.
Liam Denning is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy.
SoftBank’s Ohio power plant delivers an AI sticker shock
www.japantimes.co.jp
The underlying message is that the old model of just building giant power plants to meet whatever new peak demand forecast we dream up is unsustainable.
Mayor Lurie tells S.F. departments to plan for 500 job cuts as labor battles intensify
By J.D. Morris,
Staff Writer
March 3, 2026
www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/lurie-unions-tough-fights-21941808.php
Mayor Daniel Lurie chats with children on the second day of SFUSD teacher’s strike at an after-school enrichment center that has extended its hours to accommodate families in reaction to the strike.
Mayor Daniel Lurie chats with children on the second day of SFUSD teacher’s strike at an after-school enrichment center that has extended its hours to accommodate families in reaction to the strike.
Camille Cohen/For the S.F. Chronicle
Mayor Daniel Lurie was already in a tough spot with San Francisco labor unions Monday when his administration delivered a sobering message: City Hall needs to eliminate hundreds of jobs.
At least 500 positions are on the chopping block as the city seeks to reduce its spending on salary and benefits by $100 million, according to Lurie’s budget director Sophia Kittler. She told departments in an email that San Francisco “cannot afford to sustain current spending on personnel costs” as it works to eliminate the recurring deficitsthat have plagued the city since the pandemic.
Read more: How antisemitic heckling and a tweet by S.F. Mayor Lurie turned into a firestorm
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Kittler’s message was a clear sign that labor issues are becoming increasingly urgent for Lurie. And the mayor probably can’t meet the needed reduction in workforce expenses by cutting only vacant jobs: Kittler said that based on current vacancy rates, “meeting this target requires eliminating filled positions.”
Public-sector unions would inevitably resist such a move, underscoring how labor conflict is a central issue for the Lurie administration this year. While San Francisco public school teachers just ratified a new contract after concluding their first strike in nearly 50 years, the mayor is now staring down several major fights that are expected to test his relationship with union leaders like never before. Lurie played a supporting role in the teachers strike, since City Hall doesn’t manage the school district, but he’ll be much more involved in the battles to come.
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Chief among them is the next city budget, which Lurie must propose by early June. The same month, San Francisco voters will decide on a business tax measure that is championed by public-sector labor groups but opposed by Lurie. This fall, organized labor may resist part of Lurie’s plan to reform the City Charter — the document that shapes how San Francisco governs itself.
Already this year, the Lurie administration is negotiating new contracts with the unions for San Francisco police officers and firefighters. Next year, he’ll need to do the same with unions representing an even larger swath of City Hall’s 34,000-person workforce.
How Lurie navigates each of those hurdles will help answer important questions about the rest of his term. Will he maintain productive relationships with labor leaders, despite disagreements over some issues such as the June ballot measure to raise taxes on companies with high-paid executives? Or will Lurie struggle to find areas of agreement with unions and allow labor groups to become reliable opponents of his plans?
Taken together, these conflicts could heavily influence how effective Lurie is at delivering on his plans to put the city on firm financial footing and make City Hall more accountable and efficient.
So far, the mayor is taking a diplomatic stance with the unions.
“I believe labor cares deeply about this city, just like I do. Sometimes we have different ways of getting to the end goal, but I feel very confident in my ability to work with labor,” Lurie told the Chronicle in a recent interview. “They are looking out for the best interests of their members and the city, and we are going to find common ground wherever we can.”
Lurie’s connections to organized labor are thin, given that he was a nonprofit founder who had never held public office before he was elected. An heir to the Levi Strauss denim fortune, Lurie spent millions of dollars of his own money on the 2024 mayor’s race, which he won despite scant backing from local unions. San Francisco labor groups have organizing power and financial resources they have historically tapped into to help propel the candidates and causes they support — and sink the ones they don’t.
“I don’t think he has a feel for these things in the way that previous mayors (did),” said John Logan, a labor studies professor at San Francisco State University. “It’s very unusual to become mayor of a city like San Francisco and have almost zero background in these issues.”
Logan said Lurie will find it increasingly difficult to implement his priorities if he views labor as an obstacle to his agenda rather than a potential partner.
“Whether he likes it or not, he can’t walk away from these unions. They are here. He has to deal with them,” Logan said. “He might think that they’re not the answer to the city’s problems but … his administration is going to have to learn how to engage.”
Lurie got his first taste of a big San Francisco labor dispute in the weeks between his election and inauguration.
As Lurie was transitioning into the mayor’s office, union workers were noisily picketing outside several of the largest hotels in San Francisco. The labor dispute threatened to cause problems during two major events set to bring thousands of visitors to the city in the early months of Lurie’s term. So Lurie reached out to hotel owners and was credited with helping to end a strike that dragged on for about three months.
Lurie told the Chronicle in his recent interview that the hotel strike reinforced the importance of getting “the right people and the right parties to the table.” He said he applied that lesson to the teachers strike, when he tried to facilitate discussion between the union and district leadership.
“It really felt like they were talking past each other” at first, Lurie said.
Lurie also relied on a circle of key advisers in the days leading up to and during the teachers strike. The list included two of his top aides: Chief of Staff Staci Slaughter and Kunal Modi, his chief of health and human services. Carol Isen, the director of the city’s Department of Human Resources, was also involved, as was Steve Kawa, a consultant who was an aide to former San Francisco mayors Willie Brown, Gavin Newsom and Ed Lee.
Those advisers each brought “different areas of expertise” to the table and frequently updated Lurie on how negotiations were progressing, he said. The mayor twice in one day stepped out of events related to the Super Bowl to get briefings about the talks. He also took separate Feb. 6 meetings with the head of the teacher’s union and the district superintendent, and his office secured space for the two sides to negotiate in person at the War Memorial Veterans Building.
Cassondra Curiel, president of the teachers union, said the building access was “entirely the mayor’s doing” and she was “very appreciative” of that.
Lurie said he was “trying to play a neutral role.”
“I did not want to put my thumb on the scale,” he said. “My job wasn’t to tell the two parties where to land.”
Lurie also learned the limits of his influence during the teachers strike. He spoke by phone to Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi on Feb. 8 — Super Bowl Sunday — and the two politicians subsequently urged the union and district to keep talking for another three days instead of going through with the walkout. But the union did not delay the strike, which kicked off the next morning.
The strike concluded in four days, sparing Lurie from the political pain he would have faced if public schools were closed for a more protracted period. But Lurie’s labor issues are far from over.
In three months, voters will determine the fate of a union-backed measure that would raise San Francisco’s “overpaid executive” tax on large companies with generously compensated CEOs. Lurie has been critical of that proposal, warning that it could hurt San Francisco’s business climate.
Hoping to avoid a costly ballot battle between the public-sector unions supporting that measure and the business interests supporting their own competing measure, Lurie had urged both sides to find a compromise. When they did not, he came out against both the union- and business-backed measures.
It’s unclear how large a role Lurie will play in the campaigns over those measures as the June 2 election draws closer. Regardless, he will spend much of the next few months focused on another issue that’s top of mind for the city’s labor movement: the city budget. In December, the mayor told city departments to help him find $400 million in cuts from the general fund as he prepared to close a nearly $900 million two-year deficit in his next spending plan.
Lurie has to propose the budget by June 1, and unions are bracing for the mayor to seek layoffs. That likelihood appeared to increase because of the Monday message from Kittler, Lurie’s budget director, who told departments that the proposals they’d already submitted would achieve less than a quarter of the necessary reductions to salary and benefit costs. Kittler encouraged departments to find savings by paring back their management structure, trimming staffing for special projects, reducing overtime and getting rid of non-essential programs.
Last year, Lurie proposed cutting about 100 filled jobs from the city payroll, but the number was ultimately reduced to about 40 in the deal that city supervisors negotiated with the Lurie administration. This year’s budget shortfall is even worse than last year’s, partly due to federal funding cuts under the Trump Administration.
Rudy Gonzalez, secretary-treasurer of the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council, acknowledged in an interview that the upcoming budget negotiations are an area where Lurie might meet strong resistance from labor. But Gonzalez said he’d so far found Lurie’s administration “pretty reasonable to work with” overall. The building trades council is supporting a new policy Lurie proposed to cut a local tax on large real estate transactions in an attempt to boost housing production.
“I don’t feel the need to pound my fist on the table to get the mayor to take me seriously,” Gonzalez said. “(His aides) seem to be able to chew gum and walk at the same time, and recognize that policy disagreements are just that — they don’t have to be personal.”
Lurie is expected to get broad labor support for one of his top political priorities for the year: passing a November parcel tax to prevent massive service cuts at Muni. But in the same election, he’ll also be asking voters for permission to overhaul the City Charter. Labor leaders have already expressed skepticism about one of the main reforms under consideration: making it harder for measures to qualify for the ballot.
“I can take it and I welcome it,” Lurie told the Chronicle about upcoming potential conflicts with unions. “We do not have to be on the same page on every issue. That is not the goal here. The goal is to be at the table talking and working through issues that we have together.”
Mayor Lurie tells S.F. departments to plan for 500 job cuts as labor battles intensify
www.sfchronicle.com
The mayor is staring down a series of high-profile political fights and negotiations that will test his relationship with union leaders like never before.