The war on workers' rights has shifted to a new and unlikely battleground this week: the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. And for the more than 350,000 employees and the veterans they serve, the stakes could not be higher.
Let me explain. In the wake of last year's "secret waitlist" scandal - where VA managers rigged the scheduling system to make it appear that more veterans were being seen than actually were - Congress passed a law giving VA Secretary McDonald the authority to fire bad managers and the resources to hire enough staff to care for the massive influx of new vets into the VA system. Were it not for the brave VA employee whistleblowers who put their careers on the line to speak out and expose the list-rigging, we never would have known the problem existed.
Today, the VA is seeing more patients than ever before while continuing to deliver quality, integrated care designed just for veterans. There is still a lot of progress to be made in filling the more than 40,000 job vacancies at VA medical facilities across the country, but the trend is undoubtedly headed in the right direction.
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