{"id":25606,"date":"2023-04-06T19:35:40","date_gmt":"2023-04-06T19:35:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/uncategorized\/2023\/04\/06\/veterans-affairs-union-reach-agreement-on-labor-contract\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T05:02:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T05:02:28","slug":"veterans-affairs-union-reach-agreement-on-labor-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/management\/career-management\/2023\/04\/06\/veterans-affairs-union-reach-agreement-on-labor-contract\/","title":{"rendered":"Veterans Affairs, union reach agreement on labor contract"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i>Update: This story was updated on April 7 to include a statement from VA Secretary Denis McDonough.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal union, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs reached a long-awaited agreement on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.federaltimes.com\/management\/2022\/06\/15\/va-workers-union-hammering-away-at-negotiations-for-first-new-contract-in-10-years\/\" target=\"_blank\">a new labor contract,<\/a> the union announced Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After the VA was told to stop bad-faith bargaining last month by a federal mediator, talks escalated in the weeks since to bring both sides to a tentative agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThese negotiations have lasted multiple administrations, and we actually just passed the one year anniversary of contract negotiations with the current administration,\u201d said Thomas Dargon, AFGE\u2019s supervisory attorney on the contract, in a phone interview. \u201cI think both teams were feeling a great deal of frustration with the lack of progress being made at the table, and we\u2019re really pleased that we were able to accelerate our discussion in the last few weeks and reach a deal that both sides are happy with.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Negotiations have been ongoing for nearly six years since December 2017 when the original<a href=\"https:\/\/www.federaltimes.com\/management\/2022\/06\/15\/va-workers-union-hammering-away-at-negotiations-for-first-new-contract-in-10-years\/\" target=\"_blank\"> contract first reopened.<\/a> This contract is the largest public-sector collective bargaining agreement, according to the union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">AFGE has not publicly released the final terms of the new contract, as it is yet to be signed. However, a majority of the predecessor agreement will be rolled over along with revisions to VA\u2019s hiring procedures aimed at addressing staffing shortages at the agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/management\/leadership\/2023\/03\/16\/va-failed-to-negotiate-labor-contract-in-good-faith-arbitrator-rules\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP21195746605051.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">VA failed to negotiate labor contract in good faith, arbitrator rules<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Sticking points continue to be details on employee discipline, awards and promotion.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dargon said winning an arbitration award last month helped reinforce arguments the union was making at the table and accelerated talks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis tentative agreement is a great step forward that will help us hire, support, retain, and onboard VA\u2019s great public servants \u2013 which, in turn, will help us better serve our nation\u2019s veterans,\u201d said Secretary Denis McDonough in a statement. \u201cA unionized VA workforce is a strong VA workforce, and we are proud to work with AFGE to continue delivering world-class care and benefits to Veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">AFGE represents roughly 291,000 VA employees. Nearly 80% of all VA public servants are bargaining union employees, according to the department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Retention and hiring are areas of top priority for the union as it moves forward, especially with respect to burned out, overwhelmed employees who have worked on the front lines of the pandemic amid health care worker shortages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re really eager to see how these changes impact working conditions at the facility level for folks in hospitals and benefits offices around the country,\u201d Dargon said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AFGE represents roughly 291,000 VA employees and nearly 80% of all VA public servants are bargaining union employees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":68129,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":66,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[34,55,66,11,31,15,33],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3269],"class_list":["post-25606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-career","category-career-management","category-fedlife","category-home","category-management","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"IKUOIBKJQREMRGBSFFFKM3FEIQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/management\/career\/2023\/04\/06\/veterans-affairs-union-reach-agreement-on-labor-contract\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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