The Trump administration declared on Aug.6 they would completely cancel the union contracts of nearly 380,000 unionized federal workers at the Department of Veteran Affairs, commonly known as the VA. The VA is the single largest cabinet department with nearly half a million workers total – 1 in 4 of whom are veterans themselves. This assault on VA workers’ rights isn’t only union busting, its also an assault on veterans themselves.
Established in 1930, the modern VA has expanded with each major war to provide services to veterans returning from each war. The Department of Veterans Affairs is the largest integrated health care system in the United States, serving 9.1 million veterans through 170 medical centers and nearly 1,200 clinics.
They provide everything from primary care and mental health services to disability claims processing and burial honors. For millions of former service members – who often carry the scars of U.S. imperialist wars back home with them – the VA is a basic lifeline.
Union-Buster-In-Chief
In March, Trump signed an unprecedented Executive Order revoking collective bargaining rights for nearly 1 million federal workers, a move that stripped union protections from two-thirds of the entire federal workforce, including VA employees. This sweeping order hit members of The American Federation of Government Employees, National Federation of Federal Employees, National Association of Government Employees, Service Employees International Union, and National Nurses United. It stands as the largest assault on unionized workers in generations – for many harkening back to President Ronald Reagan’s 1981 assault on PATCO, the air traffic controllers union.
Trump justified this unprecedented anti-union move by saying it was necessary for “national security” and “improving veterans’ services,” rolling out every anti-union trope. In reality, it’s about breaking the unions that stand in the way of mass layoffs, dismantling the VA, and handing veterans’ care to private contractors.
VA Secretary Doug Collins terminated nearly all VA union contracts overnight on Aug 6. “Too often, unions…fight against the best interests of veterans,” Collins claimed, accusing them of protecting “bad workers.” But AFGE President Everett Kelley cut through the spin, “The real reason Collins wants AFGE out of the VA is because we have successfully fought…to shut down disastrous, anti-veteran proposals to close rural VA hospitals, dismantle veteran health care by cutting 83,000 jobs and shift care to for-profit contractors.”
Clearing the path for wholesale demolition of the VA
This union-busting is the opening shot in a larger war on veterans’ services. Without unions, VA workers lose their protections on staffing, safety, and workload – making it easier to ram through closures, outsourcing, and cuts to the VA. National Nurses United warned, “The Trump administration is hellbent on silencing nurses and other VA workers to steamroll the destruction of the VA, marching toward privatization.”
And it’s not just the VA. Trump’s March executive order and his newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), run in its early months by Elon Musk, are carrying out mass firings across the federal government under the banner of “efficiency.” Over 280,000 federal workers have already been laid off, with agencies ordered to eliminate any job “not required in statute.” DOGE is the blunt instrument for implementing the far-right Project 2025 plan to smash the civil service, purge workers seen as disloyal and replace them with political loyalists or private contractors.
They call it reform. It’s a demolition job, and it’s happening alongside Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” which codifies nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts and $300 billion in SNAP cuts. All that stolen money is being shoveled into war budgets, mass deportations and the biggest tax cuts in history for the rich and corporate America.
Billionaire cuts vs worker power
The strategy is simple: Weaken the workforce by stripping union protections and cutting jobs; Break the services so veterans and the public lose faith in them; Finally, hand the remains to billionaires eager to turn public need into private profit.
We’ve already seen how they wanted to go further. In July, VA officials were preparing to lay off 80,000 employees – 17% of the department – which would have shuttered clinics, slowed benefits processing, and left veterans waiting months for care. It was only organized resistance from unions, workers and veterans’ groups that forced them to back down. Collins had to announce in July that there would be no department-wide reduction in force, instead limiting cuts to 30,000 through attrition.
But the fight is far from over. Those 30,000 lost jobs still mean fewer doctors, nurses, claims processors and support staff for veterans. And nothing stops them from coming back for the bigger cuts once the unions are gone.
Federal unions are one of the last lines of defense – not just for workers in these unions, but also for the millions who rely on the programs they run. That fight can’t be left to the unions alone. Veterans, their families and every community that depends on public services have a stake in this. When they come for VA workers, they are coming for veterans themselves. And if they win here, truly nothing in the public good will be safe.
Photo: Union VA workers with AFGE protest proposed layoffs. Credit: AFGE
