The Department of Veterans Affairs announced Wednesday it was ending collective bargaining agreements with most federal unions — a move that affects roughly 80% of its total workforce.
Members of the American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO, the National Association of Government Employees, the National Federation of Federal Employees, the National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United and the Service Employees International Union will no longer have the labor protections negotiated by their organizations.
They can still be members, but the VA will not recognize the contracts that have been negotiated on behalf of the workers by these groups.
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VA officials said the change will free up office space that is being used by union representatives and eliminate hours department bargaining unit employees spend on union business. The announcement was met with swift condemnation from union officials and Democratic lawmakers, who say that the contract terminations will affect veterans’ health care and services and contribute to an exodus of VA employees that began this year with dismissals of probationary workers and resignation offers.
“Too often, unions that represent VA employees fight against the best interests of veterans while protecting and rewarding bad workers,” VA Secretary Doug Collins said in a statement. “We’re making sure VA resources and employees are singularly focused on the job we were sent here to do: providing top-notch care and service to those who wore the uniform.”
The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents nearly 300,000 VA employees, said the decision was “retaliation” for members “speaking out against the illegal, anti-worker, and anti-veteran policies of this administration.”
“The real reason Collins wants AFGE out of the VA is because we have successfully fought against disastrous, anti-veteran recommendations from the Asset [and] Infrastructure Review (AIR) Commission which would have shut down several rural VA hospitals and clinics, opposed the Trump administration’s plan dismantle veteran health care through the cutting of 83,000 jobs, and consistently educated the American people about how private, for-profit veteran health care is more expensive and results in worse outcomes for veterans,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said in a statement.
National Nurses United said that, with the move, “President Trump continues waging class warfare against working people of America.”
“Studies have shown unionized hospitals have better outcomes than non-unionized hospitals because nurses and other staff are able to speak up about their concerns and hold management accountable. Veterans deserve nurses who are free to advocate for their care without fear of retaliation, discipline or losing their jobs,” the organization said in a statement.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March that excluded nearly two dozen federal agencies, including the VA, from labor relations programs, citing national security concerns.
Enactment was delayed as a result of numerous lawsuits, but on Friday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a preliminary injunction that had kept the order from being implemented.
Wednesday’s announcement continues the Trump administration’s long-standing efforts to reduce the role of unions in the federal workforce. During his first term, Trump signed executive orders that made it easier to fire federal workers and limited the subjects that unions could negotiate over.
During that time, VA officials announced that union officials would be required to vacate their offices in department buildings or start paying rent. The unions also tussled with the administration over the firings of more than 1,700 VA employees during Trump’s first term whom the administration said were dismissed for misconduct.
And earlier this year, the VA stopped withholding most union dues from employee paychecks, forcing them to pay some other way.
According to VA officials, the change to no longer recognize the unions will free up more than 187,000 square feet of office and medical space now used for union representative offices and will influence bargaining unit employees’ priorities, allowing hours spent on union work to “now be used to serve veterans instead of union bosses.”
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, ranking member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, called the contract terminations “a cruel and stupid mistake.”
“The Trump administration’s move to strip VA and veteran employees of their union bargaining rights is yet another blatant assault against VA’s workforce that will damage veterans’ care and benefits and weaken accountability and oversight at the department,” Blumenthal said in a statement Wednesday.
The unions that represent roughly 4,000 VA police officers, firefighters and security guards are not affected by the change.
Shortly after the judge’s ruling last week, Kelley said AFGE was deciding what its next steps were in the legal fight against the executive order.
“We remain fully committed to fighting this case on the merits and are confident in our ability to ultimately prevail,” Kelley said
Related: VA Nurses Are in Short Supply. Unions Say Trump’s Deferred Resignation Plan Could Make Things Worse
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