VA Ends Union Contracts for Most Workers At Its Cleveland Medical Center, Citing Trump Executive Order
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced last week that it's terminating contracts with most of its employees' unions, including those who represent workers at the Louis Stokes Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
U.S. Rep. Shontel Brown on Wednesday denounced the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ decision to terminate contracts with most of its workers’ unions, describing it as a “a shameful assault on the workers who serve our veterans and keep the VA running every day.
“The nurses, caregivers, and frontline staff at (Louis Stokes Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center) and facilities across America don’t ask for praise, they ask for a voice,” Brown, a Warrensville Heights Democrat, said in a statement. “And today, the Trump Administration told them to sit down and shut up.”
AFGE President Everett Kelley said the action by VA Secretary Doug Collins was a clear case of retaliation against AFGE members for speaking out against the illegal, anti-worker, and anti-veteran policies of the Trump administration.
“The real reason Collins wants AFGE out of the VA is because we have opposed the Trump administration’s plan dismantle veteran health care through the cutting of 83,000 jobs, successfully fought against the disastrous and anti-veteran recommendations from the Asset Infrastructure Review (AIR) Commission that would have shut down several rural VA hospitals and clinics, and consistently educated the American people about how private, for-profit veteran health care is more expensive and results in worse outcomes for veterans,” Kelley said.