Ranking Member Takano and Veterans’ Affairs Committee Members Slam Secretary Collins’s Gutting of VA Employee Union Rights

Today, House Committee on Veterans' Affairs Ranking Member Mark Takano and House Committee on Veterans' Affairs Members Julia Brownley (CA-26), Chris Pappas (NH-01), Sheila-Cherfilus McCormick (FL-20), Morgan McGarvey (KY-03), Delia Ramirez (IL-03), Nikki Budzinski (IL-13), Tim Kennedy (NY-26), Maxine Dexter, M.D. (OR-03), Herb Conaway, Jr., M.D. (NJ-03), and Kelly Morrison, M.D. (MN-03) issued the following statement after the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced that it would terminate collective bargaining agreements for most VA bargaining-unit employees. VA Secretary Doug Collins claimed that the move was made pursuant to President Trump’s Executive Order. This decision will impact American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO (AFGE), National Association of Government Employees (NAGE), National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE), National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU), and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). VA claims the change will not impact VA police officers, firefighters, or security guards represented by the unions.

“While Secretary Collins tries to spin this horrific VA decision to terminate union contracts for most bargaining-unit VA employees, we see it for what it is – a politically motivated attack on VA employees’ rights, power, and autonomy. This Administration is showing once again that it is anti-worker, anti-veteran, and anti-VA. They are outright violating the law to retaliate against workers and their unions who have dared exercise their First Amendment right to oppose this Administration’s actions that harm workers. This Administration fears unions because they know that there is strength and power in unions. At a time when VA employees are leaving the agency in droves due to the toxic work environment created by Secretary Collins, it is more important than ever that we work together to protect VA employees’ rights. We remain committed to ensuring VA employees have all the tools they need, including collective bargaining rights, to do their job and to improve the care and benefits veterans receive at VA. We stand with the hardworking union members who serve our nation’s veterans, and we call on Secretary Collins to end these naked political attacks at the expense of veterans and to support the fundamental American principle that Americans have the right to join unions and to collectively bargain. Violating that principle is unpatriotic.”

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