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Community, union members picket in support of VA Health Care employees in Iowa City
The protest follows an announcement that U.S. Veterans Affairs will terminate union contracts
Aug. 27, 2025 6:35 pm, Updated: Aug. 28, 2025 7:24 am
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IOWA CITY — Honks and cheers rang out Wednesday afternoon outside the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Iowa City, where dozens of community members gathered in protest of the Trump administration’s treatment of Veterans Affairs Health Care employees, including the recent announcement that Veterans Affairs would be terminating union contracts.
“Federal employees have faced months of Trump administration attacks at the VA and other federal agencies, including illegal mass firings, arbitrary hiring freezes, and reckless termination of thousands of probationary employees in already understaffed facilities,” a news release about the protest, from the Iowa City Federation of Labor, states.
U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Douglas Collins announced earlier this month that the national organization would be ending contracts with the American Federation of Government Employees as well as multiple other unions that VA employees belong to. The press release about the change states the decision will give VA staff more time to focus on serving veterans as they focus less on union responsibilities.
“Too often, unions that represent VA employees fight against the best interests of Veterans while protecting and rewarding bad workers,” Collins said in the release. “We’re making sure VA resources and employees are singularly focused on the job we were sent here to do: providing top-notch care and service to those who wore the uniform.”
Union advocates disagree, saying unions empower employees to better serve the veterans they work with.
“Our patients get the best care when we can deliver that care safely and advocate for our patients. The union is there to speak truth to power. Health care is too important to be treated as political spoils for private interests. It seems that Secretary Collins’ goal is to make VA fail and convert taxpayer dollars to private profit,” Patrick Kearns, a registered nurse for the VA and the president of Iowa City’s American Federation of Government Employees chapter, said in the news release about Wednesday’s protest.
Kearns spoke at the protest and thanked people for coming out to support the effort. He said it’s been a hard year for VA employees because of federal hiring freezes and other policy changes that have caused people to leave the profession, so he’s hoping that this protest can help make the general public more aware of the issues VA employees are facing and encourage people to reach out to their representatives.
“We’ve lost a lot of people to retirements and just leaving federal service because they don’t feel valued, and they feel harassed,” Kearns said. “I think that the Trump administration’s been successful in that people are anxious and scared and don’t believe that their contributions are valued anymore.”
The protest is one of multiple that have happened this month around the Midwest, according to Ruark Hotopp, the National Vice President over District 8 of the American Federal of Government Employees. Hotopp came to Iowa City to support the protest from his home in Nebraska. He also attended a similar protest in Minneapolis on Monday, he said.
“Folks are paying attention to what’s happening in their government, and they don’t like it,” Hotopp said.
Jenny Tyner, a former employee at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center who attended the protest Wednesday, said she felt compelled to come out and support her friends who still work for the hospital.
“Iowa City VA, I’ve always considered the gem of the Midwest,” Tyner said. “It’s a hospital that supports each other, and helps each other grow.”
Tyner worked for the hospital in various roles before retiring three years ago. She said she’s shocked by the Trump administration’s approach to veterans.
“Cutting out veterans’ benefits and hurting those that care for them, it’s ungodly,” she said.
Many veterans also attended the protest, including Army veteran Joe Stutler, who said supporting the VA workers is important to him both because he receives his health care through them and because he is in a union himself and wants to support other union employees.
“This is personal to me because this is my hospital,” Stutler said. “These people take care of me … I’m here to take care of them because they take care of me.”
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