Equal Rights for All VA Employees Means Better Health Care for Veterans!

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Collective bargaining serves the public interest by allowing workers to have a voice in the provision of quality and safe public services. Veterans deserve no less from the VA health care system. But currently, VA management is preventing many of its health care professionals from exercising their collective bargaining rights.

VA's front line Title 38 health care professionals (registered nurses, physicians, physician assistants, dentists, dental assistants, podiatrists, optometrists and chiropractors) are supposed to have the same rights to grieve, arbitrate and negotiate with management over working conditions as other federal employees, including other VA employees. In fact, Congress added Section 7422 to Title 38 nearly two decades to make it clear that health care professionals have equal bargaining rights. But over the last seven years, VA management has engaged in a massive attack of these critical rights by refusing to bargain over almost every workplace issue, including: nurse premium pay, mandatory overtime and reassignment; physician weekend duties and performance bonuses; and requests for pay survey information. As a result, laws passed by Congress to ensure competitive pay, safe work schedules and fair employment are undermined on a daily basis.

That's why Senator John D. Rockefeller (D-WV) and House VA Committee Chairman Bob Filner (D-CA) have introduced legislation (s.362/H.R. 949) to restore these collective bargaining rights and other appeal rights.

We need you to ask your lawmakers to support S. 362/ H.R 949 in order to stop this administration's attack on VA employees and ensure that veterans’ front line clinicians can speak up for their patients

Subject:

Dear [ Decision Maker ],

(Edit Letter Below)

On behalf of the American Federation of Government Employees and AFGE National VA Council, I am asking you to co-sponsor S. 362/ H.R. 949 which will provide a badly needed fix to Section 7422 of Title 38. Collective bargaining serves the public interest by ensuring the workers have a voice in the safety and quality of the services they provide. This bill would provide VA registered nurses, doctors, physician assistants and other front line providers with the same collective bargaining rights that are currently extended to other federal employees, including pharmacists and psychologists at the VA and doctors and nurses who work at military hospitals and Bureau of Prison facilities.

VA management's extreme and unreasonable interpretation of Section 7422 has left these employees without the ability to bargain over routine matters such as assignments and work schedules. Moreover, the VA Undersecretary for Health, who has the unilateral power under Section 7422 to exclude matters from bargaining, has ruled against the employee's right to bargain in the vast majority of the cases that have come before him since 2005. This abuse of discretion should no longer be allowed to continue.

Arbitrary application of Section 7422 by management has harmed employee recruitment, retention and morale. For example, VA psychologists have more grievance rights than VA psychiatrists and VA licensed practical nurses have more grievance rights than VA registered nurses. Veterans also benefit when all health care professionals who care for them can use these rights to advocate for safe and quality care. 
Providing the same collective bargaining rights to all VA employees will not interfere with the agency's mission in any way or interfere with other management rights established by Title 5.

Again, I urge you to co-sponsor S. 362/H.R.949 to restore the rights of these front line VA employees so that they have equal collective bargaining rights as other federal employees. I look forward to hearing where you stand on this issue.

Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Your address]

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