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VA drops union contract for 300,000-plus workers, but no court has ruled it expired.

An appeals court paused the order keeping the contract alive without deciding if it expired. VA stopped grievances and bargaining anyway.

VA drops union contract for 300,000-plus workers, but no court has ruled it expired.
Stock photo, not from the event described. Photo by Tasha Kostyuk on Unsplash

The Department of Veterans Affairs has stopped honoring its national union contract for most of the more than 300,000 employees it covers. No court has decided whether that contract actually expired.

On Oct. 8, VA revised internal guidance to say its master agreement with the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) "no longer applies" to most bargaining-unit employees, according to documents viewed by Federal News Network. On Oct. 10, the department told AFGE it considers the agreement expired. Negotiations, grievances, and arbitration "shall immediately cease," the guidance says, and employees must return government equipment used for union work by Oct. 22.

Police officers, firefighters, and security guards keep their contract protections. Nearly everyone else in the bargaining unit loses them.

A pause, not a verdict

The contract was set to expire Aug. 8. AFGE argues that when VA asked to negotiate a successor contract last spring, it triggered a clause that keeps the old agreement in force until a new one is signed. VA says the union didn't come to the table within the contract's 30-day window. On Aug. 7, U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose of the District of Rhode Island sided with the union and ordered VA to keep the contract in place.

On Oct. 2, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit stayed that order. A stay pauses an order while an appeal plays out; it doesn't decide who is right. The panel found DuBose's August order went beyond the scope of her original March injunction, which is still on appeal. It also acknowledged that "there remains an unresolved dispute between the parties" over whether their communications satisfied the contract's automatic-extension clause, Government Executive reported. The March injunction, which ordered VA to restore the contract after its first attempt to cancel it, remains in effect.

The case is American Federation of Government Employees Local 2305 v. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (D.R.I. No. 1:25-cv-00583; 1st Cir. Nos. 26-1321 and 26-1904).

Who gains and who loses

VA Secretary Doug Collins has been trying to end the contract since August 2025. He relies on President Trump's Executive Order 14251, which removed collective bargaining rights at VA and much of the federal government on national security grounds. Courts blocked his first two attempts. A VA spokesperson declined to comment, citing pending litigation.

For workers, the change is immediate. Most lose their Weingarten right, which is the right to have a union representative with you in a disciplinary meeting, Government Executive reported. Managers will follow VA policy alone on telework, schedules, leave, and promotions, and VA will stop taking part in grievances for employees outside the exempt groups. A message from VA management told employees to "discuss all workplace matters directly with your supervisor."

AFGE said it "vehemently opposes the VA's latest attack on federal workers, a third of whom are veterans themselves." The union said the appeals court "did not sanction the VA's interpretation" of the contract's duration clause, and that "the court has not ruled on the underlying issue in this case."

Courts are still split

The same week, a judge in a similar fight went the other way. On Oct. 16, U.S. District Judge Vernon Oliver in Connecticut voided the Bureau of Prisons' second attempt to cancel its AFGE contract, which the union says covers about 30,000 workers. The bureau had sent a new termination notice days after Oliver ordered the contract restored. "Rather than abiding by this order, defendants issued the re-termination memorandum," Oliver wrote. He ordered the contract kept in place through May 28, 2029, unless the injunction is lifted, but declined to hold the agency in contempt, calling that step "premature."

The difference between the two cases is procedural. Oliver enforced an injunction that wasn't on hold. In the VA case, the appeals court paused DuBose's order before the merits were decided, and VA moved through that opening.

What comes next

AFGE says it will keep fighting before Judge DuBose and "take every action to defend our contract and the rule of law." No new filing or hearing date had been announced as of Oct. 16. The First Circuit still has to rule on VA's appeal of the March injunction.

If you work at VA and face discipline, keep copies of every notice, email, and meeting summary, and get advice quickly. Deadlines to challenge discipline can be short, and you no longer have a union steward watching them for you.

Sources

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