On a recent weekend at the Charles George Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Asheville, a nurse couldn’t find eye drops for a patient. They weren’t there because the supply technicians whose job it was to ensure the nurse stations were stocked had been fired, according to Brandee Morris, a union leader stationed at the Asheville medical center.
Initially fired in February, the status of 14 probationary employees remains unclear after a flurry of legal actions. Meanwhile, a steady stream of executive orders from President Donald Trump and large-scale firings by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency have caused confusion and chaos at the WNC veterans medical center.
A March 27 order effectively eliminated collective bargaining for much of the federal workforce, including the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). That means Local 446 of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) — whose membership has grown 20% since Trump took office — may lose its full-time employees. The union is suing the Trump administration over the order.
That’s atop a March 4 memo from VA Secretary Doug Collins’ chief of staff to undersecretaries and other VA officials that outlines plans to cut 80,000 VA employees nationwide. Collins has said that would return the VA to 2019 staffing levels. No details on how that would affect staff in Asheville have been provided.
“It’s just mass confusion. There’s no guidance. This administration continues to jump in the middle of traffic without looking both ways,” says Morris, president of AFGE Local 446 who has worked at the Asheville VA for 24 years. “It’s absolute chaos.”
For weeks, information requests from Xpress about cuts, rumors of policy changes and the local effects of executive orders were left unanswered. The Asheville VA did not have a dedicated communications representative after public affairs specialist Katherine Ramos Muniz was fired as part of the cuts. Ramos Muniz has been reinstated, she told Xpress April 9, but was unable to provide responses to any other questions, including the length of her absence.
While Ramos Muniz was gone, media requests were forwarded to Scott Pittillo, communications project manager for the region that includes Virginia and North Carolina. He was unable to provide responses to most questions about the initial cuts or the state of the labor union at the VA, telling Xpress in March that management didn’t want to get ahead of any statements made by Collins for fear of contradicting the new secretary.
Over the course of several weeks, more than a dozen workers have declined to speak to Xpress about the situation inside the Charles George VA, even anonymously, for fear of reprisal from management. Eventually, Morris agreed to speak on the record.
“I’m scared I’m going to lose my job, too. I mean, I’m not going to lie to you — it worries me with all the interviews I’ve done,” she says. “But I took an oath as president [of the union]. I’m trying to be a voice for these people that don’t understand, or they don’t feel comfortable being a voice for themselves.”
Who got fired
On Feb. 24, the VA dismissed more than 2,400 probationary employees nationwide, including 14 of the 2,450 employees who work for the VA in WNC, Pittillo, the VA spokesperson, says.
Those layoffs were reversed after U.S. District Judge William Alsup said the Office of Personnel Management did not have the authority to terminate employees across six agencies after AFGE sued the Trump administration.
“It is a sad, sad day when our government would fire some good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that’s a lie,” Alsup said at the end of a hearing, as reported by CBS. “That should not have been done in our country. It was a sham in order to avoid statutory requirements.”
On April 8, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked Alsup’s temporary injunction, keeping the VA from reinstating the fired employees while litigation continues. Typically, employees are on probationary status when they’ve served less than a year in their current roles or were promoted to new roles.
VA Secretary Collins said at a press conference in Asheville on March 18 that the money saved from those dismissals are “being redirected to patient care” and will make the use of taxpayer funds more efficient.
According to Morgan Ackley, the VA’s director of media affairs, those 14 included an interior designer and supply technicians. She did not confirm if there were other positions included in that round of firings.
Morris says the interior designer position isn’t “picking fuschia or pink” but is in charge of ordering furniture and lights and making sure patients and employees are not overly crowded in various rooms.
Sherry McCulley-Hall, an advanced practice nurse at the VA who retired five years ago, says the interior designer helped her team create a clinical space that was welcoming for patients with mental health issues, addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder. The careful selection of low lighting, for example, helped create an atmosphere that calmed veterans and prepared them for treatment.
“Her role was very important, and she did it for other clinics [within the VA] as well. She didn’t just decorate by picking out wallpaper. That’s not what it was about,” McCulley-Hall says.
The supply technician roles that were temporarily eliminated are vital to the nurses caring for patients, both Morris and McCulley-Hall told Xpress.
There are supply technicians working around the clock to ensure supply staches on the hospital ward are fully stocked with everything nurses might need, from eye drops to diapers. Nurses add any needs to patient charts, and roving supply technicians make sure the supplies are available on the floor, Morris says.
“Believe me, they’re important because we don’t have time to go downstairs and get them,” McCulley-Hall adds.
Union dues
President Trump is seeking to limit union power as union membership grows around the country, including in Asheville, Morris reports.
Morris’ WNC AFGE chapter, which includes employees from the VA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Blue Ridge Parkway, has grown to include about a third of 3,000 employees, Morris says.
The White House released an order to limit “union obstruction” of agencies with national security missions and put the VA in that category. The order claimed some federal unions have “declared war on President Trump’s agenda.” VA unions have filed 70 national and local grievances as of March 27 over Trump policies since his inauguration, the White House contends.
AFGE announced March 31 it will challenge Trump’s order, calling it the “biggest attack on the labor movement in history” in a news release.
Morris says the union does more than lodge lawsuits against the Trump administration. In the VA, Morris and her team help mediate grievances between workers and their supervisors, often easing tensions in the high-stress atmosphere of a hospital. She says managers call daily for help with employee relation issues or to navigate an employee’s contract.
Typically, that work is done during “official time” in the union office, a full-time job for Morris and her team. Once the VA implements the executive order, Morris would have to go back to her administrative assistant job at the VA and any union work would have to take place after hours, essentially creating a second job for all union officers, Morris says.
To Morris, the intent of the move to stifle unions is clear: Save money by firing people at will.
“If you get rid of unions, then they don’t have representation. They can fire people at will, and then they can hire contractors, and it’s cheaper, and they can line their pockets, and they can privatize the federal government, which is exactly what this administration wants to do.”
In the March 18 press conference, nine days before Trump’s executive order on collective bargaining, Collins said he had no plans to privatize the VA.
Veteran fears
Meanwhile, veterans range from worried to angry about what changes might come to the Charles George Medical Center.
“This is the best health care in America, and they’re messing with it,” said veteran Robert Burns, one of more than a dozen gathered outside the Asheville VA to protest Collins’ visit.
The Asheville VA earned a top two ranking from VA Claims Insider in 2022 after a survey showed 90% of patients gave the hospital a nine or 10 ranking for quality of care, with 10 being the highest.
Ashley Fortune, a Brevard-based disabled veteran, receives regular services at the Asheville VA, but Fortune has had trouble getting appointments.
“If we’re already not getting appointments, we’re already not getting care that we need, and you’re cutting people, how is that going to improve anything?”
Fortune says the messaging from Trump and Collins suggests that serving veterans is not the priority.
“You’re writing a blank check with your life when you sign up for the military. And one of the things that they offer you is if something happens to you when you sign that blank check, [they’re] going to take care of you, and they’re not,” Fortune says. “I’m fortunate that I was not one of the ones that had to go to Afghanistan or Iraq or anything like that. But if you’re failing a veteran, you’re failing a veteran. It does not matter.”
Editor’s note: This article was updated on April 18 to correctly identify the American Federation of Government Employees.
Thank you, Greg, for your reporting.
If there is confusion it’s because of a lack of leadership.
This is excellent reporting and exactly what is needed. The Trump administration lies and intentionally mischaracterizes reality, for example, calling the employee who helps vets with mental illness by creating smart environments with lower lighting, etc. an “interior designer.” Also, by explaining specifically what the supply technicians do and their impact on the nurses shines a light on why any cuts are hurting vets and their caretakers. Keep up the great work, Greg Parlier.
I’m sorry that folks have been fired. I receive my healthcare at this facility. Everyone at all levels is courteous, caring and proud of the good work they do. Regardless of the treatment the staff remains positive and supportive.
Many of those at the VA do a great job. No doubt. A lot of their employees deserve so much better.
But the question is…..how many of those employees voted for this knowing who this group of Keystone Kops were? They knew it
To the veterans who deserve the best of the best care, my heart truly breaks. You deserve so much better.
To the employees who voted for this, you reap what you sow. No sympathy here. Too bad you put drama over top notch care for the best of the best.
We had missing stocks of supplies and medicine for years, or even wrong medications were stocked. No one responsible was fired. We had multitudes of wasteful conducts and personnel at the VA for decades. I do not believe for a second that a singular person’s departure led to the missing eyedrops. That person could also take a sick day or take vacations, instead. Things do not get done appropriately because this VA’s leadership is bad and they care more about their own careers and politics and public relations than actual trying being a hospital. This article is filled with liberal biased perspective and does not offer a balanced report. Especially the last paragraph the reporter used a liberal veteran to disparage our President and Secretary of the VA. This is atrocious.