On Thursday, Oct. 2 at 11 a.m., in front of the William Jennings Bryan Dorn Veterans Affairs Medical Center, union leaders from the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) with be holding a press conference with local veterans and the South Carolina AFL-CIO to discuss how the termination of union contracts for Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) staff will impact former servicemembers in the state. Following an executive order from President Trump, VA Secretary Doug Collins recently ripped away collective bargaining rights from hundreds of thousands of dedicated workers at the agency, a move that will degrade conditions and services for the nearly 400,000 veterans in South Carolina. Federal workers—30% of whom are veterans themselves—are standing up and fighting back against attempts to gut services and medical care for the Americans who put their lives on the line for our nation.