National Nurses United

A P R I L | M AY | J U N E 2 0 2 5 W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G N A T I O N A L N U R S E 17 " I t wasn't until I started work- ing at the VA that I really understood why I loved being a nurse," said Mildred Manning Joy, an RN at the VA in Durham, N.C., at a recent congressional briefing on what's happening in our VA facilities. Like many VA nurses, Joy is a veteran herself. Compassionate, committed, skilled nurses like Joy should not have to feel ripped away from the work they love and the veteran patients who so deeply deserve high-quality care. But if this administration had its way, arbitrary staffing cuts impacting VA clinicians, outrageous emails demanding VA nurses justify their work, and attacks on the collective bargaining rights of federal workers, including 15,000 VA nurses represented by NNOC/NNU, would drive nurses away from their jobs. The goal? Purposely inciting so much chaos that the Veterans Health Admin- istration can no longer function properly, giving corporate-backed elected officials an excuse to privatize this critical public resource. But union nurses do not cave to attacks on working people. We stand up and fight because our collective voice is the voice of patient advocacy, including the voice for our veteran patients, who have sacrificed everything. That's why Joy joined VA nurses from across the country and Rep. Mark Takano, ranking member of the U.S. House Committee on Veterans Affairs, at a May 20 online brief- ing for members of U.S. Congress and national media to give firsthand accounts from inside our VA health care facilities. RNs described staffing cuts impacting patients' ability to receive proper care for wounds and chemical burns, patients waiting an outrageously long time for medication, nurses left without support staff and experiencing moral distress while trying to perform tasks such as turning over beds in addition to their patient care duties. And this is all happening in an environ- ment where the administration is trying to silence VA nurses' protected union voice. We know an injury to one is an injury to all, and attacking the collective bargaining rights of any division within our union opens a door to attacking the protected union rights of all workers. So in April, NNU joined with other federal-sector unions in a lawsuit to challenge this execu- tive overreach in the courts. VA nurses and allies across the country have also been holding ongoing rallies to draw attention to what's happening in their facilities, and speaking out relentlessly for months. They will continue to do so at local and national events throughout the summer. We have also been demanding passage of the VA Employee Fairness Act, a federal bill introduced May 7 that will ensure nurses and other VA clinical staff have full bargain- ing rights, as they currently are unable to bargain on issues such as staffing, and other workplace issues that impact care. And make no mistake: Nurses see that the attacks on VA health care are in line with a wider attack on all vulnerable patients, through the more than $715 billion cuts and changes to Medicaid approved by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives on May 22. The changes, as written into the budget recon- ciliation bill, would eliminate health care for more than 8.6 million lower-income patients, impose new costs for patients who can't afford it, establish onerous work rules, yank health care from low-income legal immigrants, deny patients gender-affirming care, and cut benefits to veterans—who are already enduring painful attacks on VA health care. For Congress to choose to deprive low-income, disabled, pregnant, senior, and child patients of health care in favor of funding tax cuts for billionaires shows an utter lack of respect for human- ity. It also makes it clear that their goal is to defund these programs to the point that they break, so they can say, "They don't work. Let's privatize them." Nurses have been fighting for decades to win Medicare for All, and these attacks on the health and security of tens of millions of our patients only underscore the need for deep, systemic change. Until we win guaran- teed health care as a human right, we have programs like Medicaid and agencies like the VA to help those who are suffering the most. And we are not about to let our hard- won protections roll back. Union nurses are going to keep moving forward and using our collective power to fight for a society where we take care of one another. To achieve that brighter, healthier future, we will be in our representatives' offices, in the streets, on TV, speaking out anywhere and everywhere our voice can make a difference. Our fight is as fierce as the veterans who put their lives on the line to protect this country. Nurses will never stop protecting them and our other vulnera- ble patients, in return. Bonnie Castillo, RN is executive director of National Nurses United. Bonnie Castillo, RN Executive Director, National Nurses United A Movement as Fierce as Our Veterans RNs are fighting cuts, attacks on VA health care, Medicaid, and more Nurses see that the attacks on VA health care are in line with a wider attack on all vulnerable patients, through the more than $715 billion cuts and changes to Medicaid approved by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives on May 22.

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