The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is the largest federal employee union representing 625,000 federal and D.C. government workers nationwide and overseas. Workers in virtually all functions of government at every federal agency depend upon AFGE for legal representation, legislative advocacy, technical expertise and informational services.
One of the largest agencies AFGE represents is the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). AFGE represents workers at all functions of the VA, from housekeeping staff to medical professionals. In addition, roughly 40% of AFGE members have served, or currently serve, in the military.
The VA healthcare system is a world-renowned medical provider, and our nation’s heroes deserve nothing less than a fully-funded, fully-staffed VA. VA hospitals have been hailed, respectively, by the New York Times and the U.S. News and World Report as being the “true future in American health care” and “a model of top-notch care.” There can be no doubt that when it comes to caring for our veterans, nobody does it better than the women and men working in the VA health care system
Unfortunately, despite the dire need of providing veterans access to quality healthcare, some lawmakers on Capitol Hill support privatizing the VA and support the move to send our veterans to for-profit medical centers with a credit card and pre-set spending limits.
AFGE is launching this campaign and teaming up with veterans’ groups to bring attention to this matter. Ill-sighted measures to privatize and outsource VA services is an injustice to our nation’s heroes who put their lives at risk to defend this country every day. The only way to ensure Veterans receive the care they need and deserve is to protect the services provided by Department of Veterans Affairs from privatization and outsourcing.
