Season’s Greetings 2010

 

 

As the days get shorter, we realize that 2010 is coming to an end.  It has been, to say the least, a very busy year and we continue to grow as an organization!    So, as the holidays approach, we have a great deal to celebrate.  We look forward to welcoming family and friends for a Happy Holiday Season.

 

Yet as we gather around the hearth and wreath, we cannot forget those who are far from home, in peril around the globe.  Our brave men and women in uniform are, at this most festive of seasons, far from their loved ones as they protect us.  Let us remember as you’re eating your dinner, smiling and laughing, that in another house somewhere, there’s an empty chair where a hero should be sitting.  So light a candle for the heroes that did not make it home and for those who are still serving in Afghanistan, Iraq, and around the world.

 

Let us also remember them as they serve us, and let us rededicate ourselves to their care, and also for the care of their brother and sister veterans that we serve every day, in hospitals, clinics, benefit offices, and cemeteries.

 

As we look back on 2010, we must also look forward to a bright and upcoming 2011.  We must realize that we will have a great deal of work ahead of us to defend the gains we have made in our goal of making the VA a model workplace.  We face a hostile environment, in which the recently announced pay freeze may only be the first volley.  But I am sure that working together, we can continue to organize, legislate, and litigate on behalf of the workers entrusted to our care and to continue to have the successes we have had in the past.

 

On behalf of the National Veterans Affairs Council, #53, the Executive Board, Staff and the bargaining unit employees we represent, I wish to offer you my thanks for all your hard work in 2010 and to wish you the happiest of holidays and the most joyful of New Years in 2011.  Working together in the New Year, there is nothing that we cannot achieve!