On Tuesday, Williams joined AFSCME President Lee Saunders, her fellow care providers, nurses and other advocates at a press conference and a rally to hold her congresswoman accountable for supporting the cruel budget bill. The events were part of the AFL-CIO’s “It’s Better in a Union” bus tour, which stopped in Anaheim.
“The cuts Rep. Young Kim voted for directly threaten the care my loved ones receive and the income I depend on to provide for my family,” Williams said. “I’m sick of being shut out of my public official’s office. I’m sick of her dismissal and her cruelty toward us. I’m done drying my tears. I’m ready to fight. We are not letting this go.”
More than 100 members of AFSCME and other unions marched on Kim’s office to demand answers for her vote, which will raise costs on California’s working families and threaten the public services they depend on.
The protesters delivered a letter detailing the ways in which the law will hurt Kim’s constituents. As many as 31,000 people in California’s 40th Congressional District could lose health care. Hospitals, nursing homes and clinics are already moving to cut services and staff. Nearly 370,000 Californians are at risk of losing food assistance. All working families will face higher bills for health care, groceries and energy due to cuts in the law.
Saunders said Kim voted to make the biggest cuts in history to Medicaid, kill thousands of jobs created by that vital program, rip health coverage away from 15 million people across America, and slash CalFresh at a time “every shopping trip already feels like a gut punch.”
“It’s shameful. It’s cruel. And it’s not what leaders are supposed to do. So today, we’re here to send a message to Congresswoman Kim: With this vote, it’s clear we can’t count on you,” Saunders said.
Charmaine S. Morales, president of UNAC/UHCP, an AFSCME affiliate, said more than 100,000 nursing jobs are vacant nationwide and nearly half the country’s nurses are feeling burned out.
“Yet partisan politics has nurses, health care workers, and our patients caught in the crosshairs,” Morales, a registered nurse for 17 years. “And we are all paying the price. Every patient deserves a caregiver who has the time, the resources, and the support to give their very best. And that’s exactly what we’re fighting for.”
AFSCME Local 3299 member Teresa Ramos, who works at the University of California-Irvine Medical Center, called the Medicaid cuts a “betrayal.” Patients are scared to get treatment because they’re worried about getting hit with huge bills, she said.
“I deeply understand that fear, because it’s the same fear my family faces,” Ramos said. “I’m calling on Rep. Kim to remember who she works for. Not the lobbyists. Not billionaires. But people like me — essential workers, single moms, caregivers, and working people just trying to survive.”
AFSCME Council 36 member Nettie Tovar worries about the needy Californians she helps in the Santa Ana area. She connects them with health care through Medi-Cal and helps them put food on the table.
She fears the most for her special needs son.
“Thanks to Young Kim’s vote to pass the so-called ‘Big Beautiful Bill,’ cuts to Medi-Cal may affect my household and my son’s continued health care services,” Tovar said. “I urge you Congresswoman Kim, not as a politician, but as a fellow parent, community member, and public servant to stop attacking these vital programs.”
