VA reverses course, restores union contracts following judge’s rebuke

The Department of Veterans Affairs is restoring labor contracts with several of its unions, after a federal judge said the department was defying her order to do so.

The VA is restoring the collective bargaining agreements with six unions that represent a majority of its workforce — including the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 300,000 VA employees. The labor agreements will temporarily remain in effect while these cases proceed through the court.

AFGE’s National VA Council told its members in an email Thursday evening that VA’s Central Office is “instructing facilities to return to the status quo for all AFGE-represented employees,” including everyone covered by the master agreement before VA unilaterally terminated it on Aug. 5, 2025.

“It appears that VACO is finally providing guidance and instructing facilities to take immediate steps to comply with the court’s orders,” AFGE/NVAC wrote.

The restoration of the contract may be short-lived. The Justice Department notified the court last week that it has appealed its case to the First Circuit Court of Appeals, which may decide to stay the lower court’s injunctions.

Last week, the VA re-terminated its master collective bargaining agreement with AFGE — a move that a federal judge in Rhode Island called “blatant disrespect” for her preliminary injunction to restore it.

According to an updated memo from VA’s Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer, obtained by Federal News Network, collective bargaining agreements have been restored for the following unions, while the preliminary injunctions remain in effect:

• AFGE
• Western Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals (WFNHP), Veterans Affairs Staff Nurse Council (VASNC) Local 5032 at the VA Medical Center Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• United Nurses Association of California/Union of Healthcare Professionals (UNAC/UHCP) at the VA Medical Center, Loma Linda, California
• International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 2168 at the Cheyenne, Wyoming VA Medical Center;
• International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, (IAMAW) Local 1998 at the VA National Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii
• Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA) Locals 572, 1029, and 1322.

“For these unions, department organizational components should apply their respective CBAs to both excepted employees and non-excepted employees,” the VA memo states.

The VA restored its master collective bargaining agreement with AFGE/NVAC days after the court’s preliminary injunction. But court filings show the department continued to deny benefits and workplace protections outlined in the contract to covered employees. DOJ attorneys representing the VA told the court that the order to reinstate the collective bargaining agreement didn’t mean it had to honor and enforce its provisions.

U.S. District Court Judge Melissa DuBose said that the VA’s disregard of her preliminary injunction demonstrated “blatant disrespect for not just this court’s order, but for the rule of law,” and that the VA would be considered in contempt of the court if it didn’t comply with the injunction.

DuBose granted AFGE’s motion to enforce the preliminary injunction on March 27 and ordered the VA to reinstate its master collective bargaining agreement with the union — and that the agreement “shall remain applicable and binding in both form and substance.”

DuBose also granted a preliminary injunction on March 27 in a lawsuit led by National Nurses United and several other unions, which required the VA to restore their collective bargaining agreements.

VA says it’s still not required to recognize the collective bargaining agreements for unions not covered by the court’s latest rulings.

The VA’s memo says its Office of Labor-Management Relations remains responsible for complying with the statute and handling all labor relations matters within the department.

“However, given the VA-wide impact of complying with the preliminary injunctions, it may delegate matters within its responsibility to other appropriate organizational components for processing.”

The lawsuits focus on a March 2025 executive order that eliminated collective bargaining at more than 20 agencies — including the VA. President Donald Trump followed up with a second executive order in August that eliminated collective bargaining at more agencies. Both executive orders greatly expand an exemption in the 1978 Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute that prevents agencies from collective bargaining if they work in national security.

In granting her preliminary injunctions, DuBose wrote that she did not determine whether the Trump administration exceeded its legal authority when it issued its executive orders rolling back collective bargaining rights. But she said unions are likely to prevail in their argument that VA Secretary Doug Collins “favored some unions over others” in its implementation of the March 2025 executive order.  The executive orders, she wrote, allow department heads to grant exceptions to the executive order, “on an agency or subdivision basis,” but not “union by union.”

The legality of the executive order is still under review by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last month that the Trump administration’s termination of collective bargaining agreements was not retaliatory, and that the White House would have issued these executive orders even if the plaintiff unions hadn’t spoken out against its policies or taken legal action.

If you would like to contact this reporter about recent changes in the federal government, please email jheckman@federalnewsnetwork.com, or reach out on Signal at jheckman.29

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