How is COVID impacting your facility?

VA leadership isn’t sharing all the facts around COVID and how it’s impacting workers and veterans. Without accurate information it makes it difficult to advocate for adequate PPE or other protections against the virus. Can you fill out the COVID Survey to make sure accurate information is reported on what’s happening at your facility?

We’ve already heard from workers still not being given N95 masks when they enter rooms or wards with positive patients. There are reports of multiple staff entering COVID wards at a time, when the number of individuals should be limited, and even worse, staff are being rotated in and out of COVID assignments. These types of incidents should be reported on accurately, but we know the VA is trying their best to hide the facts to avoid accountability.

As a frontline worker, Alma, you have the right to be protected in your workplace. You should not have to put your life at risk because the VA won’t do their job. Tell us what you’re seeing at your facility so we can ensure you and workers like you are given a voice.

When each of us shares the truth about what we’re experiencing we all get closer to showing management and the public why things need to change. We’re about to enter the 9th month working in this pandemic. We have lost 90 brothers and sisters to COVID and 11,000 of us have tested positive.

Many of these cases could have been prevented if the VA did their due diligence to protect us, but instead, they turned a blind eye and left workers to fend for themselves. Make sure we have the facts so we can continue to hold the VA accountable and advocate for adequate worker protections by filling out the COVID Survey.

In unity,

Alma Lee

President of the AFGE National Veterans Affairs Council