22Apr
WASHINGTON, DC — Today, the U.S. The District Court of Rhode Island reinstated the collective bargaining agreement of over 320,000 workers at the Department of Veterans Affairs, thanks to a lawsuit led by American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and others representing union workers and veterans, dealing a blow to blow for the Trump administration who terminated union contracts against the single largest bargaining units in the federal workforce.
This VA unit represents nurses, therapists, housekeepers, benefits processors, cemetery staff, and countless others who carry out the mission of serving veterans every day. Collective bargaining ensures those workers have a voice when policies threaten patient care, staffing levels, or the basic conditions that allow them to do their jobs.
“Attempts to strip those rights away was never just an attack on workers. It was an attack on the system veterans depend on,” said Naveed Shah, Political Director of Common Defense “When the people providing care are pushed out, veterans pay the price. The answer is not silencing the workforce. It is strengthening it.”
Recent reporting has shown that mental health clinicians at the VA are leaving in alarming numbers amid worsening conditions and rising wait times for veterans seeking care.
Collective bargaining gives VA employees the ability to raise concerns about staffing shortages, unsafe workloads, and policies that undermine care before those problems spiral into crises — issues that have only accelerated since Trump’s hostility toward veterans and the VA. It is one of the tools that helps keep the VA accountable to the veterans it serves.
This ruling is an important step toward restoring those protections. But the larger fight remains the same: ensuring the VA is properly staffed, properly funded, and empowered to provide the world-class care veterans deserve.
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Common Defense Civic Engagement (501c4) (CDCE) is a grassroots, veteran-led organization that was founded in 2016. We empower veterans to stand up for our communities against the rising tide of racism, hate, and violence, to organize against the entrenched powers that have rigged our economy, and to champion an equitable and representative democracy, where “liberty and justice” truly is for all. For too long, politicians from both political parties have attempted to use veterans as unwilling political props, and Common Defense serves as a home for veterans to organize and speak for themselves and support the candidates who truly share our values.