NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A recent move from the Trump administration is upsetting some labor unions.

A recent executive order allowed the Department of Veterans Affairs to cancel collective bargaining agreements. Now, labor unions in Nashville and across the country are responding. 

Navy veteran Jim Wohlgemuth served in Vietnam and is now part of Veterans for Peace. He currently uses the Nashville VA Medical Center and said he’s happy with his care.

“I was exposed to Agent Orange; I suffer from PTSD. I suffer from moral injury; I just had my second melanoma taken care of because the VA is right here, and I can get to it,” Wohlgemuth said.

He joined others on Friday to protest outside of the hospital, in tandem with a larger effort around the country, in response to the VA ending collective bargaining agreements with labor unions.

“It's illegal. And we're fighting for all of our union employees across the country, there's a lot of them, and it's just unfair,” said veteran and sergeant-at-arms of Local 2400 AFGE Christopher Bennett.

Union workers said the future is now unclear for their members who work inside the VA. They worry that severing these ties with the VA could lead to changes in care.

"The call to order is to stop trying to privatize the VA, to stop trying to give our health care, our health care service to a private sector person that's going to make a profit off of it," Wohlgemuth said. "The government for decades, for decades, has been more than happy to send us overseas to wherever and then leave us alone when we get back."

In a statement from the Nashville VA, organization leaders praised the move, claiming that it would allow them more time to focus on veteran care and less time on union demands. 

But union members like Bennett see things differently.

“It means a lot caring for the veterans... we want that to continue to happen,” he told News 2. “We will keep fighting until we get this resolved.”

The Nashville VA provided the following statement to News 2:

Imagine how much better off Veterans would be if government union bosses cared as much about fixing the department as they do about protecting its broken bureaucracy. 

Here are the facts:

Terminating contracts for VA unions – which have repeatedly opposed significant, bipartisan VA reforms and rewarded bad employees for misconduct – is a huge win for Veterans. Because of this decision, VA staff will spend more time with Veterans, VA facilities can focus on treating Veterans instead of catering to union bosses, and VA can manage its staff according to Veterans’ needs, not union demands.

As a result of this move, nearly 1,900 union representatives, who had been collecting government salaries to do union work, have returned to full-time VA work on behalf of Veterans.

More info is here: https://news.va.gov/press-room/va-terminates-union-contracts-for-most-bargaining-unit-employees/.

VA Press Secretary Pete Kasperowicz

News Source : https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/nashville/union-workers-protest-at-nashville-veterans-affairs-medical-center/