American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 1631 President Jessica Fee joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast and discussed the recent decision by the U.S. Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee not to close the Chillicothe Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center in Ohio.
Local 1631 represents about 1,200 employees at the Chillicothe VA Medical Center.
Last month, the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee announced it would not move forward with assigning members to the Asset and Infrastructure Review (AIR) Commission. This decision essentially dissolved the AIR commission, which could have closed 20 VA hospitals, including the one in Chillicothe, and reduced service at 37 other VA facilities.
Fee then spoke about Local 1631’s successful campaign to educate politicians and members of the public about how closing the hospitals would devastate veteran care across the nation.
Listen to the entire episode to learn more about this topic.