NNOC/NNU RNs, AFGE and SEIU members, veterans at VA Medical Center- San Diego speak out against massive cuts, unprecedented attacks on union rights

Registered nurses at the VA Medical Center- San Diego will hold a rally on Wednesday, April 16, to demand an end to devastating VA staffing cuts, announced National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU) today. 

The VA secretary has confirmed the administration plans to cut between 72,000 to 80,000 workers, who help ensure our country’s veterans receive timely and appropriate care. These cuts would be catastrophic for patient care at the VA: according to an August 2024 Inspector General’s report, 82 percent of VA facilities already have severe shortages in nursing staff. These shortages will clearly grow if staffing is unable to keep up with rising enrollment numbers.

“No matter who you cut from the VA, veterans are going to be affected,” said Safiah Dhada, a registered nurse and the NNOC/NNU associate director at the VA Medical Center- San Diego. “If you cut housekeeping, nurses will be bagging trash, taking time away from patient care. If you cut supply techs, nurses will need to chase down supplies, delaying our veterans' care.  Our veterans deserve timely care, not delays that negatively impact health outcomes.”

Recent cuts and unfulfilled positions are compromising patient care. Nurses report having to step away from patients for long periods of time to get supplies and short-staffing so severe that if even one nurse is out sick, there are too many patients to safely care for with the remaining nurses.  

What: NNOC/NNU registered nurses, SEIU and AFGE members, and
Veterans for Peace rally against VA staffing cuts and attacks on union rights
When: Wed., April 16, 11:30 am - 1:30 pm
Where:  VA Medical Center- San Diego, 3350 La Jolla Village Dr, San Diego, Calif. 92161

VA reductions are happening amidst the presidential administration’s unprecedented attack on federal employees’ protected union rights. NNU, along with labor unions representing federal government workers across the country, sued the Trump administration this month over the president’s attempt to override federal collective bargaining rights through executive order and strip more than 1 million federal government employees of their union rights.

"Nurses are the voices for our patients,” said Andrea Johnson, a registered nurse in the medical surgical unit and the NNOC/NNU director of VA Medical Center- San Diego. “We speak up about safety concerns that may negatively impact them, and we advocate for the care they need, want, and deserve. Our collective bargaining agreements provide us protections and ease our fears against retaliation for speaking out for our patients. Eliminating our collective bargaining agreement and the protections it provides is not only an attempt to silence nurses, but also an attempt to silence our patients and deny them the care they deserve."

Nurses assert that the administration is attempting to starve the VA of necessary resources in an attempt to undermine the agency’s ability to provide care for veterans and justify privatization of veterans’ care. Privatization presents an existential threat to health care veterans receive through the VA. The VA’s own “Red Team” Executive Roundtable analysis, which reported $30 billion of VA spending on private-sector care in 2023, noted that privatization “threaten[s] to materially erode the VA’s direct-care system and create a potential unintended consequence of eliminating choice for the millions of Veterans who prefer to use the VHA direct care system for all or part of their medical care needs.”

NNOC/NNU represents more than 870 registered nurses at the VA Medical Center- San Diego. The union represents more than 16,000 registered nurses at 23 VHA facilities across the country, many of whom are also veterans.

National Nurses United is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States with more than 225,000 members nationwide. NNU affiliates include California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, DC Nurses Association, Michigan Nurses Association, Minnesota Nurses Association, and New York State Nurses Association.