Tell Secretary Doug Collins: Restore union workers' rights at the Department of Veterans Affairs now

Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins boasted that he was a former union member in his confirmation hearing  and indicated that he would work with the unions representing VA workers on issues such as remote work.

But instead, Secretary Collins has eagerly implemented the Trump administration’s executive order to cancel the collective bargaining rights for most VA union members – part of the single biggest act of union busting in American history.

More than 120 members of Congress wrote to the VA Secretary on April 2, urging Secretary Collins to defend the VA workforce’s bargaining rights, stating that “this directive is primarily retaliatory in nature” against the unions that “have stepped up to defend employees’ rights in the face of DOGE attacks.”

This attack on VA workers’ collective bargaining rights are on top of the planned cuts of 76,000 jobs at the Department of Veteran Affairs. A letter from 25 Senators to Secretary Collins in March stated:

Reducing VA’s workforce to 2019 levels will reverse the progress made since that time, including a 16 percent increase in outpatient visits and a 23 percent increase in veterans and survivors receiving disability compensation benefits, as well as additional investments in critical bipartisan priorities such as a 50 percent increase for mental health care, an 85 percent increase for caregiver support, and a 66 percent increase for cemeteries and memorial benefits.

More than a million union members and thousands more union retirees are veterans. For our workers at the Department of Veterans Affairs and for all of America’s heroes who are the working people relying on a strong VA, we urge Secretary Collins to keep his word to “be the biggest cheerleader for every VA employee out there” and stop the job cuts and union-busting at the VA.