When President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March to end collective bargaining with federal unions, he claimed the union agreements hindered his “efforts to protect the United States from foreign and domestic threats.” American unions including the largest union for federal employees, American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), said the order was illegal and sued.
In June a preliminary injunction ruled that Trump’s EO was likely illegal, but in July, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an administrative stay (or temporary pause) of the preliminary injunction.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced that it’s removing labor protections for more than 400,000 of the agency’s workers. (According to the VA, the department has roughly 467,000 employees and expects to 12,000 VA employees to exit by September 30.)
President Trump’s Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Doug Collins, said in the announcement that the “unions that represent V.A. employees fight against the best interests of veterans while protecting and rewarding bad workers.”
Dr. Everett Kelley, president of AFGE, responded by accusing by Collins of choosing to “rip up the negotiated union contract” of the majority of his work force. (The AFGE represents approximately 800,000 federal government workers across a dozen federal agencies including the Social Security Administration, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security.)
As seen below, Collins responded to the AFGE’s response on social media by writing: “Veterans come first at VA, and I don’t care if that makes the union bosses ‘outraged.’”
Veterans come first at VA, and I don’t care if that makes the union bosses “outraged”. https://t.co/E9zR4L8IgC
— VA Secretary Doug Collins (@SecVetAffairs) August 6, 2025
Note: Like Collins, who served in the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Air Force Reserve Command, Kelley is also a veteran — he served three years in the U.S. Army and eight years in the Army Reserves.
The 300+ page contract between the Department of Veteran Affairs and the AFGE which Kelley says Collins “ripped up” was signed in August 2023 by Kelley and then-VA Secretary Denis McDonough, former White House Chief of Staff during President Obama’s second term.