Nurses in the Veterans Affairs health system use their union protections every day to make hospitals better places in which nurses can treat patients – through contract negotiations, as well as the grievance and arbitration processes. 

But increasingly, VA management, backed by recent court rulings, has broadly interpreted the collective bargaining “exceptions” dealing with direct patient care, which are outlined in the U.S. code governing nurses’ employment in the VA system.  These new interpretations have meant that significant workplace issues, such as a compressed work schedule, are ruled as being outside the jurisdiction of a nurse’s union contract and union processes. 

UAN is calling on Congress to pass legislation that will protect the collective bargaining rights of VA nurses so that these nurses can continue to provide the best care possible to our nation’s veterans.