The Department of Veterans Affairs is terminating collective bargaining agreements with several key government unions representing its employees.
In an announcement Wednesday, the VA said the move is in response to an executive order President Donald Trump signed in March that nixed collective bargaining rights for many federal workers in the name of national security.
The agency’s decision comes after a federal appellate court lifted a lower court ban on the ending of union contracts on Friday, although the Trump administration previously issued guidance that agencies should not terminate any collective bargaining agreements until litigation challenging the order is over.
“Too often, unions that represent VA employees fight against the best interests of Veterans while protecting and rewarding bad workers,” VA Secretary Doug Collins said in a statement. “We’re 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.”
The VA said it notified five major unions that their contracts for “bargaining-unit employees” 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.
Contracts covering the roughly 4,000 VA police officers, firefighters or security guards represented by those unions will remain in place, the agency said.
The VA said the move will allow staff to “spend more time with Veterans,” noting that in 2024, nearly 2,000 union employees “spent more than 750,000 hours of work on taxpayer-funded union time.” Without those obligations, “those hours can now be used to serve Veterans instead of union bosses,” the agency said.
The move will also open up more physical space for veterans’ needs, the VA said. “More than 187,000 square feet of its office and clinical space is currently being used by union representatives free of charge,” the agency said, adding that it has “cost VA millions of dollars in lost rent and expenses.”
The agency also says labor contracts have restricted managers’ ability to hire, promote and reward high performing employees and to hold poor performers accountable.
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’ move.
“Secretary Collins’ 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,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said in a statement. He noted that Collins’ action is “inconsistent” with Office of Personnel Management guidance instructing agencies to hold off on ending union agreements while the legal challenges played out.
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.
NNU, the largest union of registered nurses in the country, said the VA’s announcement to terminate its contract and those of the other unions “is an attack on those who dedicate their lives in the service of others.”
“We know this administration is hellbent on silencing nurses and other VA workers to steamroll the destruction of the VA,” the nurses’ union said in a statement to CNN. “It is because of VA nurses’ ability to speak up about patient safety through our union that our nation’s veterans receive the highest level of care.”
NNU says it will “continue to pursue legal action with our fellow unions.”
Court battles
The department’s move comes just days after a federal appeals court in California lifted a lower court’s preliminary injunction that had blocked several federal agencies from canceling certain union contracts.
Trump’s expansive executive order applies to more than 1 million federal workers across many agencies, including the departments of State, Defense, Justice and Health and Human Services.
The order is aimed at stopping federal unions that have “declared war on President Trump’s agenda,” according to a White House fact sheet. It noted that the largest union – AFGE – has filed many grievances to “block Trump policies.”
“President Trump refuses to let union obstruction interfere with his efforts to protect Americans and our national interests,” the fact sheet said.
The two largest federal employee unions – AFGE and the National Treasury Employees Union – sued in separate courts, saying Trump was retaliating for their advocacy for their members and for federal services. The unions were initially successful in blocking the order in separate federal district courts, but they each lost on the appellate level.
NNU, as well as other unions, joined AFGE in its lawsuit against the executive order.
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