VA Says Court Lacks Authority to Make Agency Follow Union Pact

A preliminary injunction ordering the Department of Veterans Affairs to reinstate its collective bargaining agreement doesn’t require the agency to abide by the contract’s terms, the Trump administration argued in a brief to the court.

The VA said in a Tuesday filing that the American Federation of Government Employees National Veterans Affairs Council, which represents over 300,000 agency employees, should address alleged breaches of the collective bargaining agreement through the contract’s grievance procedure, not the courts. Lawyers for the Justice Department filed the brief on behalf of the VA.

“Plaintiffs conflate the Court’s order reinstating the Master CBA (including its ...