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Veterans and Unions Unite to Save the VA

By Ken Nielsen and Michael Applegate

The Veterans Administration is under immediate threat. Trump-appointed Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Doug Collins, is unqualified to carry out the duties of his position. Collins advocating for "reform" is in reality a policy of systematic dismantling. Secretary Collins hypocritically is a chaplain in the Air Force Reserve. We may all question how a "man of God" could turn his back on veterans through the staffing cuts and resource reallocations he is parroting and pushing as part of the Trump Regime.

During Donald Trump's first term, the federal government began shifting VA resources away from in-house care and into private community providers—a steady drain that, reports show, moved more than $40 million from the VA's budget into private practices over the past eight years. That redirection, sold as "choice" for veterans, now looks dangerously like a strategy to hollow out and ultimately privatize the VA.

The administration initially proposed cutting 80,000 VA positions—a plan that was only reduced to 30,000 after intense backlash from veterans and unions. Even 30,000 cuts will cripple a system already stretched thin, especially as post-9/11 veterans age and require more complex care. At the same time, federal workers' collective bargaining rights have been stripped, further undermining morale and the VA's ability to deliver quality care.

Since this spring, veterans' groups and VA unions have mobilized urgently to stop that dismantling. About Face: Veterans Against the War, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Veterans For Peace, and unions including National Nurses United (NNU), the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) have joined forces to warn veterans, VA staff, and the public that the administration's policies will mistreat VA workers and strip veterans of the care they were promised and putting their lives at risk.

That organizing has led to numerous rallies and press conferences at VA facilities, including Jesse Brown and Edward J. Hines hospitals. On September 12th, a National Call to Action brought events to VAs nationwide to expose plans to funnel funds to community care and to oppose the rollback of federal workers' collective bargaining rights. Additional actions are scheduled through the midterm elections, focused on pressuring members of Congress to sign a pledge: stop diverting VA funds to private care and restore bargaining rights for federal employees.

The absence of the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars from these events is striking. Regardless of political leanings, critics say, those major veterans' organizations should be standing with fellow veterans to defend the VA now—before its capacity is irreparably damaged.

The consequences of shifting care to the private sector are immediate and severe.

First, private providers overwhelmingly lack the decades of specialized experience the VA has built treating veteran-specific conditions—toxic exposures, PTSD, traumatic brain injury, military sexual trauma, and other service-related illnesses.

Second, the US private healthcare system is already overloaded and profit-driven; moving as many as nine million veterans into that system will degrade care for veterans and civilians alike while lining the pockets of insurance companies.

This is a critical moment! Veterans, union members, and allies are mobilizing to defend the VA—and they need broad public and congressional support to stop the erosion of life-saving services, staffing, and workers' rights before the damage becomes irreversible. The choice is urgent: protect and strengthen the VA now, or watch a vital public institution be quietly dismantled. The VA is not perfect, but it is a functioning public healthcare system that works far better for veterans than a wholesale transfer to the private sector would.

Ken Nielsen is a Gulf War era veteran currently living in Chicago. Michael Applegate is a GWOT Navy veteran and mental health counselor from Berwyn, IL.

Demo at Hines VA in Chicagoland, September 15, 2025.

Michael Applegate, outside Sen. Tammy Duckworth's office in Chicago, National VA Day of Action, September 12, 2025.

Alex Foss, Navy veteran, and member of About Face:Veterans Against the War at demo at the Hines VA in Chicagoland, September 15, 2025.