Petition Statement

Help stop the widespread employee harassment, retaliation, and intimidation at Edward Hines Jr. VA Medical Center!

Petition Background

To truly honor our veterans, we must ensure the people who care for them are respected and feel safe in their workplace. This is often not the case at Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital in Illinois, where dedicated employees have frequently been victimized by widespread harassment, retaliatory actions against those reporting abuses, bullying, and other forms of intimidation.

Upper management at Hines has not been responsive in investigating these offenses, which violate Veterans Administration policies, contractual agreements, and the constitutional rights of those victimized. In many instances, members of management have themselves been guilty of these abuses. In other instances they have ignored complaints, dismissed them outright, and used pressure and threats against some employees making these complaints.

Instances of bullying and harassment have increased exponentially, with 650 complaints in the past year as verified by Equal Employment Opportunity Commission office records. Hines management has refused to accept accountability or even conduct an open discussion on these issues, despite detailed complaints brought to their attention by employees and representatives of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 781. Members of the National Nurses Union and the Service Employees International Union have also reported similar instances of harassment. Continue reading “Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital; issues of retaliation and harassment occurring at the facility.”