Ricky -- We’re excited to share another BIG win for our union: we secured backpay for VA employees who were wrongfully fired or disciplined using Trump’s outrageous Firing Law. This is another example of how important it is to have a contract that protects workers. Without those protections we wouldn’t have gotten this far.

The firing law known as the VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act of 2017 went into effect in June 2017 and was originally meant to hold management accountable. Instead, the VA misused the legislation to excessively fire lower level workers, many of whom are veterans. In September 2017, we filed a national grievance to fight back, and in 2018 we won the case. Instead of honoring our agreement and complying with the arbitration award, the VA took the issue to the Federal Labor Relations Authority. But we won again, Ricky.

Now, the VA is required to rescind any performance-based disciplinary action that occurred using the VA Accountability Act where the employee was not first offered a performance improvement plan consistent with our contract. This includes reinstatement for fired workers and providing workers with back pay for lost wages and other benefits. If you have any questions about the decision please email our legal team at nvacattorney@afge.org.

We are working to identify the exact number of workers affected by the VA’s illegal acts, but we know that more than 1,000 of our brothers and sisters were impacted by the abusive actions of VA leadership, being disciplined or fired unfairly without the opportunity to show improvement. Luckily, our contract served to protect these workers and now they will be fairly compensated and future workers will be protected.

Unfortunately, the VA knows how powerful our union is and are trying to take away the parts of our contract that give us an opportunity to improve before being fired or disciplined. They want to be able to continue to abuse their power and justify firing employees unfairly. This is why our contract fight is so important. These provisions, and even stronger protections, are what we need to hold the line and ensure all of us are protected.

We need people like you, Ricky, to get involved in this fight and help us ensure the VA doesn’t get away with anything like this again. Sign up here to take your first step towards winning this contract fight.

In unity,

Alma Lee
President of the AFGE National Veterans Affairs Council