Post by Logan on Jun 22, 2016 5:05:48 GMT -6
Protesting privatization: Helena picketers say proposal could close VA hospitals
HELENA – Around a dozen picketers gathered in Helena on Monday to protest a proposal they say could spell the closure of VA hospitals around the country.
Union representatives with the American Federation of Government Employees joined veterans and current and former VA employees for the three-hour picket at the heavily trafficked intersection of US Highway 12 and Williams Street – a little more than a mile from VA Montana’s headquarters at Fort Harrison.
AFGE district vice president Gerry Swanke, who heads the union branch that represents thousands of VA workers in Montana and eight other western states, said a report from the congressionally created VA Commission on Care offers a blueprint for the rapid privatization of VA health care services and the potentially widespread shutdown of beleaguered agency-run hospitals.
A series of agency-rocking scandals surrounding lethally lengthy wait times, false record-keeping and disease outbreaks has seen a rash of resignations and firings at those hospitals over the past two years.
Read more: ravallirepublic.com/missoula/news/state-and-regional/article_0a9dd6fc-bde3-502b-948d-87c096422e5e.html
HELENA – Around a dozen picketers gathered in Helena on Monday to protest a proposal they say could spell the closure of VA hospitals around the country.
Union representatives with the American Federation of Government Employees joined veterans and current and former VA employees for the three-hour picket at the heavily trafficked intersection of US Highway 12 and Williams Street – a little more than a mile from VA Montana’s headquarters at Fort Harrison.
AFGE district vice president Gerry Swanke, who heads the union branch that represents thousands of VA workers in Montana and eight other western states, said a report from the congressionally created VA Commission on Care offers a blueprint for the rapid privatization of VA health care services and the potentially widespread shutdown of beleaguered agency-run hospitals.
A series of agency-rocking scandals surrounding lethally lengthy wait times, false record-keeping and disease outbreaks has seen a rash of resignations and firings at those hospitals over the past two years.
Read more: ravallirepublic.com/missoula/news/state-and-regional/article_0a9dd6fc-bde3-502b-948d-87c096422e5e.html