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<\/p>\n Email Link<\/p>\n Washington \n The Department of Veterans Affairs is terminating collective bargaining agreements with several key government unions representing its employees.\n <\/p>\n \n In an announcement Wednesday, the VA said the move is in response to an executive order <\/a>President Donald Trump signed in March that nixed collective bargaining rights for many federal workers in the name of national security.\n <\/p>\n \n The agency\u2019s decision comes after a federal appellate court lifted a lower court ban on the ending of union contracts on Friday, although <\/strong>the Trump administration previously issued guidance that agencies should not terminate any collective bargaining agreements until litigation challenging the order is over.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cToo often, unions that represent VA employees fight against the best interests of Veterans while protecting and rewarding bad workers,\u201d VA Secretary Doug Collins said in a statement. \u201cWe\u2019re 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.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The VA said it notified five major unions that their contracts for \u201cbargaining-unit employees\u201d were being terminated: the American Federation of Government Employees; 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.\n <\/p>\n \n Contracts covering the roughly 4,000 VA police officers, firefighters or security guards represented by those unions will remain in place, the agency said.\n <\/p>\n \n The VA said the move will allow staff to \u201cspend more time with Veterans,\u201d noting that in 2024, nearly 2,000 union employees \u201cspent more than 750,000 hours of work on taxpayer-funded union time.\u201d Without those obligations, \u201cthose hours can now be used to serve Veterans instead of union bosses,\u201d the agency said.\n <\/p>\n \n The move will also open up more physical space for veterans\u2019 needs, the VA said. \u201cMore than 187,000 square feet of its office and clinical space is currently being used by union representatives free of charge,\u201d the agency said, adding that it has \u201ccost VA millions of dollars in lost rent and expenses.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The agency also says labor contracts have restricted managers\u2019 ability to hire, promote and reward high performing employees and to hold poor performers accountable.\n <\/p>\n \n The move was met with outrage by at least two of the top unions representing VA employees. AFGE, which represents 320,000 employees at the agency, said it is assessing its options to challenge Collins\u2019 move.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cSecretary Collins\u2019 decision to rip up the negotiated union contract for majority of its workforce is another clear example of retaliation against AFGE members for speaking out against the illegal, anti-worker, and anti-veteran policies of this administration,\u201d AFGE National President Everett Kelley said in a statement. He noted that Collins\u2019 action is \u201cinconsistent\u201d with Office of Personnel Management guidance<\/a> instructing agencies to hold off on ending union agreements while the legal challenges played out.\n <\/p>\n \n Those losing their representation by AFGE and several other unions include nurses, doctors, housekeepers, maintenance, food service workers, lawyers, mental health specialists, cemetery workers and others, according to AFGE.\n <\/p>\n \n NNU, the largest union of registered nurses in the country, said the VA\u2019s announcement to terminate its contract and those of the other unions \u201cis an attack on those who dedicate their lives in the service of others.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe know this administration is hellbent on silencing nurses and other VA workers to steamroll the destruction of the VA,\u201d the nurses\u2019 union said in a statement to CNN. \u201cIt is because of VA nurses\u2019 ability to speak up about patient safety through our union that our nation\u2019s veterans receive the highest level of care.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n NNU says it will \u201ccontinue to pursue legal action with our fellow unions.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The department\u2019s move comes just days after a federal appeals court in California lifted a lower court\u2019s preliminary injunction that had blocked several federal agencies from canceling certain union contracts.\n <\/p>\n \n Trump\u2019s expansive executive order<\/a> applies to more than 1 million federal workers across many agencies, including the departments of State, Defense, Justice and Health and Human Services.\n <\/p>\n \n The order is aimed at stopping federal unions that have \u201cdeclared war on President Trump\u2019s agenda,\u201d according to a White House fact sheet. It noted that the largest union \u2013 AFGE \u2013 has filed many grievances to \u201cblock Trump policies.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cPresident Trump refuses to let union obstruction interfere with his efforts to protect Americans and our national interests,\u201d the fact sheet said.\n <\/p>\n \n The two largest federal employee unions \u2013 AFGE and the National Treasury Employees Union \u2013 sued in separate courts, saying Trump was retaliating for their advocacy for their members and for federal services. The unions were initially successful<\/a> in blocking the order in separate federal district courts, but they each lost on the appellate level<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n NNU, as well as other unions, joined AFGE in its lawsuit against the executive order.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Facebook Tweet Email Link Washington \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 The Department of Veterans Affairs is terminating collective bargaining agreements with several…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":126040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51,50,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-126039","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114986908606052677","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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