Nurses say thousands of staff cuts nationally will limit access to care, increase wait times, and accelerate privatization

Registered nurses and veterans will hold a rally in the Bronx on Thursday, Jan. 8, to denounce the Trump administration’s plans to cut tens of thousands of jobs from the VA, announced National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU) today. The VA informed NNOC/NNU that 138 positions will be eliminated in the Bronx, and 245 positions will be cut across Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. 

The Secretary of the VA, Doug Collins, told NPR last month that up to 25,000 positions would be eliminated across the country.  These cuts follow the loss of some 30,000 positions nationwide last year, exacerbating the already dire staffing shortages at VA facilities and which could lead  to a drastic deterioration of veteran care. 

“It is absolutely gut wrenching to see this administration take their axes to the VA and brutally hack away at this world class institution, the only health care system in the country specifically designed to care for veterans and to address their unique needs,” said Sharda Fornnarino, RN and secretary of the VA division for NNOC/NNU. “With each cut we know veteran care will suffer. Veterans will wait longer for care, go without care, or be forced into the private sector which does not have the specific expertise to address veterans’ unique health care needs. These cuts are a disservice to our veterans who have served our nation selflessly.”

What: RN and veterans rally against cuts to VA staffing 
When: Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, 4:30 - 5:30 p.m.
Where: James Peters Dept. of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, 130 West Kingsbridge Road, Bronx, NY. Rally will be held at the front gate of the medical center.

Speakers will include: Michael Matos, Founder of Five Borough Veterans; Kevin Meggett, Regional Commander of National Association of Black Veterans (NABVETS) and Founder of End Veteran Poverty Now; Joe Bello, Founder of NY MetroVets; Johnnie Williams, Founder of Help Is On The Way; Jose Vasquez, Executive Director of Common Defense and Harper Stanfield, NYC Federal Unionist Network.

An OIG report released in August last year found that the VA is experiencing “severe” staffing shortages and the number of shortages had grown by 50 percent over one year. Those shortages included a “severe” shortage of nurses at 79 percent of VA facilities.

“The actions taken by the administration and Secretary Collins are not only damning to the veteran community, but comical” said Michael Matos, the founder of Five Borough Veterans. “Making statements of pride for our community in public, while pulling away our support systems in private is a great example of the hypocrisy of the administration. We’re not an uneducated population. We know this is just another step towards privatization and it ends now.”

Nurses and veterans are calling on the Trump administration and VA leadership to reverse these proposed cuts and commit to an agenda that strengthens the VA in order to best serve the needs of veterans. 

That includes the passage of the Protect America’s Workforce Act, which won bipartisan support in the U.S. House of Representatives in December and now requires passage in the U.S. Senate and a signature by President Trump. If passed, the act would restore collective bargaining rights for VA nurses and other federal workers–remedies necessitated by the Trump administration’s unprecedented attack on federal workers and their collective bargaining rights. In 2025, the administration issued two executive orders that stripped more than a million union workers of their bargaining rights, which NNU and other unions contend are an overreach of presidential powers and an effort to silence nurses and other workers’ opposition to Trump policies that serve billionaires, including the acceleration of the privatization of the VA.

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.