Veterans, federal unions, community allies to gather July 31 in Augusta, GA.

VA registered nurses with National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU) are hosting a town hall on Thursday, July 31, in Augusta, Ga., in response to the administration’s unprecedented attacks on federal workers and veterans’ health care, and the VA as a whole. 

“We are calling on our communities to stand with us and the nation’s veterans as we fight back against this administration’s policies that threaten the very existence of the VA,” said Irma Westmoreland, RN, chair of NNU’s VA division. “There is a group of rich and powerful people in Washington, D.C. who want to pour billions of taxpayer dollars into giant health care corporations and the pockets of billionaires instead of into the care of those who served our country. Nurses, federal workers, and veterans are saying, ‘Absolutely not!’ We need everyone to join with us to save the VA.”

Who: VA nurses, veterans, labor unions, community allies
What: Town hall to protect VA, federal workers, and veteran care
When: July 31, 2025, 6 - 8 p.m.
Where: Transforming Lives Bible Church
             2439 Peach Orchard Rd, Augusta, GA 30906 

The town hall will be livestreamed on National Nurses United’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/nationalnurses/live_videos

Joining nurses will be members of American Federal of Government Employees (AFGE), the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE), Common Defense, the Georgia AFL-CIO, the Augusta Central Labor Council, and veterans.

Participants will share their personal experiences working for the VA or receiving care at the VA. They will address how current policies are threatening to privatize care, undermine the entire VA system, and threaten veteran care.

“The VA Augusta Healthcare Network has struggled with short staffing for many years; this is not a secret,” said Becky Halioua, president of American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) local 217. “It should be considered an act of fraud, waste, and abuse to funnel more money into sending veterans’ care into the private sector, particularly when data shows that veterans overwhelmingly want their care to stay at the VA. The best way to improve veteran care is to increase staffing and provide VA employees with the resources they need to do their jobs safely and effectively, not to send veterans into a private sector health care system that does not understand their unique needs.”

“As a disabled veteran, a former VA provider, and a proud NFFE union representative, I know the heart of federal service — it beats in every nurse, provider, claims processor, and frontline worker who shows up for our nation’s veterans,” said Jacob Pannell, U.S. Army veteran and the national business representative for the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE). “Today, that workforce is under siege. The administration’s attacks on federal workers and their unions are attacks on the quality of care our veterans receive.  That’s why we’re standing united — with NNU, with every union — to defend not just jobs or contracts, but the soul of public service. If you care about veterans, you must care about those who care for them.”

"At Common Defense, a national organization of veterans and military families, we have been organizing since the beginning of this administration to make our voices heard through our ‘VA: Not For Sale Campaign,’” said Ed Anderson, an Air Force veteran and lead organizer for Common Defense based in Georgia. “We will not stand for the gutting of the system many veterans depend on for their healthcare and benefits. This isn’t just about budget cuts, it’s about every one of us who served, and every VA staffer, many of whom are veterans, who will lose their livelihoods. That's why it’s so critical that we are coming together in Augusta. We recognize that our fights are linked, and that we are stronger together. I look forward to the work ahead as we fight to protect our VA, the veteran patients that rely on it, and the workers who keep it running."

Speakers will include:

• Mary Turner, RN, NNU President
• Irma Westmoreland, RN, Secretary Treasurer NNU and NNU VA division Chair
• Ed Anderson, Air Force veteran, lead organizer for Common Defense
• Jacob Pannell, National Federation of Federal Employees
• Tamara Reid, AFGE 217
• Burrel Lanham, Vietnam Veteran, VA patient
• Yvonne Brooks, Georgia AFL-CIO President
• Glenn Kelly, Augusta Central Labor Council President

The VA is planning to cut 30,000 positions by the end of the fiscal year, further degrading and understaffing VA facilities, which already has an extreme staffing crisis: the August 2024 Inspector General’s report found that 82 percent of VA facilities have severe shortages in nursing staff. Meanwhile, the number of veterans seeking care in the VA is rising exponentially.

To silence federal workers from speaking out about these detrimental policy changes and safety issues, the administration is trying to strip federal workers of their collective bargaining rights. In response, NNU, AFGE, NFFE, American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), National Association of Government Employees (NAGE-SEIU) and Service Employees International Union (SEIU), have sued the Trump administration.

Finally, the VA is facing an existential threat: The VA’s own “Red Team” Executive Roundtable analysis reported VA spending on private-sector care rose to $30 billion in fiscal year 2023, noting that the cost of private-sector care “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.”

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.