Today, August 25, 2025, even as Donald Trump announces the National Guard is to be deployed to states and cities across the country even as armed soldiers occupy Washington DC, there is a rally outside the Veterans Administration Hospital in Minneapolis. The rally organizers call for the restoration of collective bargaining rights for VA nurses so they can give the best patient care they can to veterans. While union members and staff are present, the rally was called for by About Face and Veterans for Peace, veterans’ groups critical of sending our troops into war, steadfast in their courageous belief that all VA patients and wounded vets deserve decent healthcare.
American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) union members who work at the VA hospital described some of the critical work that they do advocating for disabled vets. For example, there were some unit staffing issues, and VA management wanted to stop serving breakfast to spinal cord patients and other veterans with disabilities, only giving them trays. The union bargained over these issues so that veterans could still be provided care with dignity and respect.
The Trump administration has argued that the unions obstruct efficiency, national security, and prevent bad workers from being fired. This is far from the truth. Instead, the VA union, AFGE, helps wage grade employees get the pay that they were due from a staffing committee’s market wage study so that the Veterans Administration hospital can continue to recruit and retain talented and dedicated staff to care for those who fought in foreign wars and were wounded and combat. Now, almost a quarter of VA workers have not been paid their salary increase since May due to DOGE, the Donald Trump administration’s cost cutting measures.
“Here we go again. Same old crap again. Walking on the picket line. Donald Trump must have lost his mind,” a young combat vet with jet black hair, wearing his camouflage jacket with the American flag stitched into his right shoulder, kept the crowd going between speakers with chants in support of union workers who serve and care for veterans.
From 2011 to 2023, I overheard him say, he served in the army. Another man next to him mentioned that he served in the 1970s in a signal intelligence unit. Another white bearded man stood next to him with a Vietnam Veteran hat. A third wore a DAV hat, Disabled American Veterans.
These are the people hurt by Donald Trump and Elon Musk cuts to the Veterans administration and unionbusting of the American Federation of Government Employees, loyal hardworking, public servants caring for those who have served their country and put their lives on the line to defend our freedom abroad, even as it is being eroded here at home.