Stand Up For Our Veterans: Stop the Cuts to Our Veterans Hard-Earned Benefits

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UAW VALUES:

The UAW will always stand up for our veteran members’ benefits, opportunities, and welfare, advocating for them as they advocated for our country. It is our nation’s solemn duty to care for our service members and ensure they receive the resources and support they need. That commitment to those who have served does not, and must not, end when their service concludes, and they return home.

As a union, we have fought for increased funding for the Veterans Administration and supplemental compensation and benefits for Persian Gulf veterans and Agent Orange accountability. On August 10, 2022, the “Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act,” (PACT Act) was signed which is the most significant expansion of benefits and services for veterans exposed to toxins in more than 30 years. That bill is named after the son-in-law of UAW retiree Susan Zeier from UAW Local 913 in Sandusky, Ohio (Region 2B).

THE FACTS:

FACT: The Trump administration plans to cut over 80,000 employees from the Department of Veteran’s Affairs.

The VA’s chief of staff, Christopher Syrek, told top level officials at the agency that it had an objective to cut enough employees to return to 2019 staffing levels, cutting the current number of employees by over 80,000. More than 25% of the VA’s workforce are veterans themselves. The department manages and directly provides comprehensive services including health care, short-term and long-term housing options, life insurance, pensions, education stipends, and assistance in jails and courts.

FACT: Cuts to the VA staffing will greatly endanger veterans’ access to benefits and healthcare, including thousands of UAW members.

The Veterans Health Administration workforce constitutes 90 percent of the VA’s 482,000 workers, so cuts to VA workers mean cuts to health care, leading to longer wait times for care, including:

• To see health care providers;
• To have their disability claims adjudicated;
• To have someone to pick up their calls at the Veterans Crisis Line;
• To have burial and funeral expense reimbursement requests processed; • And much more.

BY THE NUMBERS:

FACT: Trump and billionaire Elon Musk have already fired thousands of veterans in the federal workforce, hurting UAW veterans and their families.

Not only have President Trump and Elon Musk fired workers who help get veterans the benefits and care they have earned, they have also fired thousands of federal workers across government, many of whom are veterans.

• Veterans make up 30% of the federal workforce, and the federal government is the largest single employer of veterans in the country.
• In 2021, there were 337,000 disabled Veterans serving in the federal government, making up 16% of the federal workforce. In February, Trump and Musk had already fired nearly 6,000 veterans according to a report done by House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro.

TAKE ACTION: STAND UP FOR UAW FAMILIES & VETERANS

UAW members say: STOP THE CUTS AND STAND UP FOR OUR VETERANS.

Contact your representative today to let them know that our veterans fought for us, now we fight for them! Say no to cuts to the VA, to life-saving and essential services and benefits.