Threat of job cuts spurs organizing drive
Veterans hospital workers rally against outsourcing
Special to Workers
World
Canandaigua, N.Y.
More than 120 Veterans Administration workers, veterans and
members of veterans' organizations rallied on July 14 at the VA
Medical Center here to protest outsourcing, understaffing and
reductions in care.
The rally came at the end of a 10-week organizing campaign
that saw 95 new members added to the Canandaigua VA bargaining
unit, bringing the membership from 24 percent of the open-shop
bargaining unit to 42 percent. Similar campaigns have already
begun at the VA medical centers in Buffalo and Syracuse, and a
campaign is set to begin soon in Albany.
The rallying workers, members of SEIU Local 200United, came
from VA medical centers in Buffalo, Albany, Syracuse and
Canandaigua. They were joined by dozens of veterans who use the
VA medical centers for both outpatient and residential
care.
The workers' main concerns are outsourcing and staffing
levels. The federal government's FAIR Act Inventory Reduction
is an accounting of 187,000 VA jobs, all but a handful of which
can be outsourced without the cost comparisons that have given
at least some protection to federal workers in the past. The
Bush administration has already called for at least a 5 percent
cut in VA jobs during the next fiscal year beginning in
October.
Bruce McWilliams, a rally participant and an Air Force
veteran who served during the Vietnam War, said that he came to
the Canandaigua VA because of its specialized treatment for
post-traumatic stress disorder.
"This place is short-staffed as it is. If they make these
cuts, programs will suffer," McWilliams said in an interview
with a local reporter.
The rally is the first example in upstate New York of SEIU's
New Strength Unity Plan. Local 200United was formed this summer
through the merger of Local 200B, 200C and 200D. The new,
stronger local represents 11,000 workers across upstate New
York and in the Hudson Valley, including 1,300 workers at VA
medical centers across the state and in Erie, PA.
The rally is just the first step in Local 200United's plan
to make a difference for VA workers. "This is a spark which we
hope will go across the country," said Dan Verstreate, chair of
the Canandaigua VA division of the local.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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