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Pending grievances stay open at Rhode Island VA facilities
Workers represented by AFGE Local 2305 can keep pressing disputes under the restored contract for now. The appeals court paused only the broader push to force full compliance.
VA employees represented by American Federation of Government Employees Local 2305 and the union’s National Veterans Affairs Council keep their grievance and arbitration system running while the First Circuit reviews the Department of Veterans Affairs’ appeal. The practical effect is simple: complaints already filed under the restored collective bargaining agreement in Rhode Island are still moving instead of being frozen at the courthouse door.
The district court ordered the agency to continue processing pending grievances and arbitrations under the contract. That part of the order survives for now, which means workers still have a live path to press disputes over the agreement.
The order did not go quite that far
The disputed language was broader than that. The Rhode Island judge said “reinstatement of and compliance with the . . . CBA . . . shall be in both form and substance,” language the VA and VA Secretary Douglas A. Collins challenged when they asked the appeals court to stay both the preliminary injunction and the enforcement order.
The First Circuit left the basic reinstatement order in place during the appeal, but it narrowed the district court’s attempt to force full compliance. Keeping a contract alive is one thing. Requiring an agency to satisfy every part of it immediately is another.
Why the dispute channel matters
For workers, the difference is not academic. Pending grievances and arbitrations stay alive, so the contract’s dispute machinery remains available while the appeal continues.