How Labor and Veterans Are Fighting Union Busting, Trump, and VA Privatization
The murder of Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) nurse Alex Pretti, during anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis last winter, highlighted the role of federal workers in resisting the Trump Administration.
Steve Early and Suzanne Gordon, the authors of Courage or Complicity, report on how military veterans, their unionized care-givers at the VA, and other federal workers, plus vets in private sector unions, are responding to Republican (and corporate Democrat) attacks on their jobs and healthcare, workers rights, undocumented immigrants, democracy in the U.S., and peace in the world.
Come join us for a discussion of the on-going community-labor struggle to prevent the VA from being defunded and dismantled. Learn more about anti-MAGA organizing among military vets within organized labor, efforts to build cross-union unity among federal labor organizations, and “Save The VA” coalition building between progressive veterans’ groups and healthcare reformers.
About the Authors
Steve Early has been active in the Communications Workers of America for forty-five years, first as an International Union Representative and now as a News Guild/CWA member. He has worked with Labor Notes, Teamsters for a Democratic Union, Association for Union Democracy, Jobs with Justice, and Labor for Bernie. Early is the author or coauthor of five previous books: Our Veterans: Winners, Losers, Friends, and Enemies on the New Terrain of Veterans Affairs; Refinery Town: Big Oil, Big Money, and the Remaking of An American City; The Civil Wars in U.S. Labor; Save Our Unions; and Embedded with Organized Labor. He lives in Richmond, CA.
Suzanne Gordon is an award-winning journalist and author who belongs to the News Guild/CWA. She has written for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Nation, The Boston Globe, and many others. She is the cofounder of the Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute and serves as a Senior Policy Analyst. She is the author, editor, or coauthor of twenty books, including previous works on veterans’ and healthcare-related issues including Wounds of War: How the VA Delivers Health, Healing, and Hope to the Nation’s Veterans.