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The Weight We Carry: Leadership, Truth, and the Battle for the VA

By Aimee Potter

What do we write these days? To be completely honest, some mornings I sit down and don't even know anymore. We are watching the world burn through another senseless war driven by a billionaire agenda—one that drains our collective resources and destroys human lives, including those of vulnerable immigrants, for no good cause. The heavy macro-realities of our world can feel entirely paralyzing.

It is against this backdrop of global exhaustion that I recently became the Union President of our local here in Chicago. I'll be the first to tell you: I didn't step up because I wanted to. I did it because it was necessary. This administration has beaten us down as federal workers to the brink of despair. Our contract has been eliminated, reinstated, and, again, subject to multiple re-eliminations. We walk on the proverbial eggshells daily, waiting for a pin to drop. Another HR rule change impacting how performance is rated, or another attempt to diminish the federal workforce is always looming.

Recently, I ran into a former FEMA employee. He told me he retired two years ago. I told him how lucky he was not to be working for this administration at this time in history. He agreed. He told me stories about the work FEMA did, providing disaster relief to children, and how heartbreaking it has been to watch the agency's decline and the services it provided nationally. He described how this administration has ruined the civil service and the federal programs that help people, how they have especially lied to Veterans, and how they are being used as pawns until they have eliminated socialized healthcare, padding the pockets of the rich.

Right now, we are living in a time where we all have to do things we don't want to do for the greater good. Veterans need an unwavering voice, and it is up to us—as workers, as advocates, and fundamentally as human beings—to stand up for those who are currently unwilling or unable to stand up for themselves.

The fight for justice is an everyday grind because we are being attacked on every single level. But if there is a beacon of hope in this exhausting landscape, it is you. A union is only as strong as its membership. Over the past year, we have watched our local grow, develop, and foster incredible new leaders. Like me, many of these individuals didn't originally want to get involved. Yet, they felt the passion, saw the threat, and found the internal drive to step into the arena anyway.

We need that fire now more than ever, because the threat at our doorstep is existential. VA Secretary Doug Collins continues to appear on television and social media to insist that he has no intention of privatizing the VA. But we work here. We know the ground truth, and it looks entirely different.

When an administration aggressively outsources veterans' healthcare to private providers and orchestrates deep workforce cuts—slashing tens of thousands of frontline positions nationwide—what other conclusion can any rational person make? Privatization remains the demon around the corner.

We have to ask the hard questions: What happens to the veterans we serve if this system collapses? What happens to the highly specialized, irreplaceable years of clinical and administrative experience held by our bargaining unit? There has been an ongoing surge in public money funneled directly into private Community Care providers. Yet, Collins continues to stand on his Fox & Friends and X platforms claiming the exact opposite. They tell you one thing online, but execute another in our medical centers. Which one do you believe?

The reality is that this administration is actively starving the system. They are pushing through massive staffing cuts to vital services—including lifesaving behavioral and mental health treatment—while burning through our hard-earned union contracts. They bypass hiring requirements and claim there is no need to backfill vacant roles.

Why do they do this? Because a workforce protected by work standards, safety guardrails, and a collectively bargained contract is a direct threat to their top-down agenda. When you have a contract, they cannot simply terminate your employment whenever they see fit; they must follow rigorous legal guidelines, data, and due process. This administration behaves as if the rules simply do not apply to them.

These past two years have been incredibly long, and frankly, the road ahead feels never-ending. As we try to chart a path forward and lean heavily on our community coalition partners, I often find myself wondering: How do we keep carrying this weight?

Some days are much heavier than others. Some days feel like an infinite loop, with the same institutional roadblocks as the day before. But we carry it because we have each other. We carry it because the Veterans of Chicago depend on the protections only this union can provide. We are growing, we are organizing, and we are not backing down. Stay unified, protect one another, and let's keep fighting.

Aimee Potter is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, and AFGE president, Local 789.

About Face marching through downtown Chicago on Veterans Day, November 11, 2025.