RESOURCES:
American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE)
US Department of Veterans Affairs
TRANSCRIPTION:
Caroline MacGregor: You're listening to 89.1 WEMU. I'm Caroline MacGregor, and I'm speaking today with Legislative and Political Action Council Chairperson of the American Federation of Government Employees, Local 2092, Larry Barton. Thank you for joining me!
Larry Barton: You're welcome! My pleasure!
Caroline MacGregor: Larry, there was a big protest in Ann Arbor this weekend on Saturday. Tell me about why this protest took place and how many people turned out.
Larry Barton: The protest is titled "Save the VA," and, as I understand this, three to four hundred people showed up.
Caroline MacGregor: The Trump administration is wanting to cut workers and make a lot of changes to the VA. And I believe there's also a move to invalidate some bargaining measures.
Larry Barton: Yes. They took away our bargaining rights, basically just took our contract and threw it in the trash, and it takes away all the protection and rights that the employees have under the agreement.
Caroline MacGregor: The Trump administration wants to trim the VA's workforce by about 15%. That equates to roughly 70 to 80,000 employees. These apparently are employees that are not directly involved in patient care. We're talking nationally speaking.
Larry Barton: Yes. Doug Collins, the Secretary of the VA, came out and said they are going to be cutting 83,000 VA jobs by June. They'd already got off and laid off a bunch of the...well, they put hiring freeze on and then the probationary periods were fired. And the probationary period for the federal government is one or two years, depending on what you're doing.
Caroline MacGregor: What are your thoughts on this lashing of federal workers and how is this going to affect the VA?
Larry Barton: Well, the VA, besides just treating the vets, they are a teaching hospital also--all the VAs, 172 VAs. And we're affiliated with University of Michigan, the doctors and nurses there. But we're also affiliated with Eastern Michigan, Washtenaw Community College, Schoolcraft Community College. Madonna University. And as a two and four year institution for anybody that's working in the medical field, we help train them. And like I said, each VA does 100 students a year, and there's 172 VAs. That is 17,200 trained medical personnel, which will be delayed in getting out into the workforce, both public and VA. It's across all 172 VA's, but we are at the Lieutenant Colonel Kettles VA. I don't know what, and they haven't come out with who or how many are going to be cut from each VA.
Caroline MacGregor: Okay. I know that US Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins visited the VA Medical Center in Battle Creek today, and he basically defended plans to slash tens of thousands of jobs from the VA system. He says the cuts can be made, "without affecting VA patient care by focusing on employees not working directly in patient care." What's your response to that?
Larry Barton: It's a bunch of bull! I worked there for 21 years. I am a veteran of the Marine Corps. I do have service-connected disability, so I am a patient there also. And I'm more worried about what's going to happen to my care because the private sector is not set up. They don't have the experience, expertise or resources to deal with veterans' issues--their mental and physical issues.
Caroline MacGregor: So, that seems to be one of the big concerns: the actual patient care and services. But Collins says they're focusing on employees not directly involved in patient care. What would you say to that statement?
Larry Barton: Well, yeah, we have a lot of patients that are not in direct patient care: dietary, housekeeping, the clerical staff, maintenance people--they don't come in direct patient contact, but they help support the mission of the VA.
Caroline MacGregor: So, would you consider those positions still critical to the overall operation of the VA?
Larry Barton: Yes, I would. You got a plugged-up toilet and you don't have a maintenance guy there, you have to wait. The VA would have to hire a plumber to come in and fix it. It would cost more than it would be the amount of time that the plumber from the VA employee would spend unplugging the toilet. And there's always things throughout the hospital that need repair or need regular maintenance put on it to keep everything running smoothly. Also, all the life-supporting patient care equipment: the monitors, ventilators, dialysis machines--they have required maintenance to do. The manufacturer will say this needs to be done. We get it inspected by the inspector general and by Joint Commission, and they go over our files, as far as I repaired the medical equipment there. We keep track of what we do when we do it. If it breaks down, we have to document what we did for the repairs and what parameters they feel it was in. If not, then we had to repair it.
Caroline MacGregor: Are you surprised at the level that this administration is going to as far as the changes they're proposing?
Larry Barton: Not really. And that's because I read most of Project 2025. And so, I knew what their game plan was. I just didn't expect them to hit it so fast and so hard. It's like so much stuff is coming at us. Our heads always spinning around because it's hard to focus on just one thing.
Caroline MacGregor: I believe you said there's been an emergency meeting called. Has that anything to do with this this evening?
Larry Barton: Well, the Secretary of the VA, Doug Collins, was supposed to stop at the Ann Arbor VA too. And I know our president was going to meet him. So, I got a feeling it's based on some of the stuff that's being done by the President and Elon Musk and DOGE--stuff that Secretary of the VA, Doug Collins said.
Caroline MacGregor: Okay. What's your true gut's reaction to all of this?
Larry Barton: I am concerned. I'm worried as a retiree. I'm worried about my social security, my pension, my disability check, and my care from the VA. The federal government hires more veterans than anybody else and more disabled veterans, or guys with service-connected disabilities.
Caroline MacGregor: Anything else you'd like to add?
Larry Barton: Yeah. I think about the VAs too, is that we are the world leader in research into post-traumatic stress syndrome, closed head injuries, traumatic brain injury. We're also world leaders in research into reconstructive surgery, wound and burn care, amputee care, prosthetics advancements and robotic assistant movement for spinal cord injuries and a whole lot more. That'll be lost. If they close the VAs, all that will be lost to America and the world. It's scary to what they plan on doing. And it's like the President said, "Oh yeah. It's a national security thing." Like I said, what national security issues are we going to have with the VA? All the patients are veterans. They're not about to threaten national security. Social security has nothing to do with national security. EPA has nothing do with national security. All these things that they do in forestry service--they have nothing to with national safety. And there's nothing we know that can get in the way of national security. Trump's doing this, to what I understand, is just because we're standing up to them. The AFGE has a whole lot of lawsuits going against him, either the Treasury's got their own union. They've got things filed. Postal Service--they wanna privatize the Postal service, and they wanna privatize all the federal agencies so they can get richer.
Caroline MacGregor: I've been speaking with the Legislative and Political Action Council Chairperson of the American Federation of Government Employees, Local 2092, Larry Barton. Thank you for joining me today!
Larry Barton: You're quite welcome! It's my pleasure!
Caroline MacGregor: You're listening to 89.1 WEMU FM Ypsilanti.
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