Watchdog: VA spends millions to train employees on union contract

By Mark Flatten

Published October 1, 2012 4:00am ET

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Watchdog: VA spends millions to train employees on union contract — Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki, AFGE National VA Council President Alma Lee and AFGE National President John Gage at the signing of the new AFGE,VA master agreement. (AFGE Photo)

Conferences to train Department of Veterans Affairs employees on provisions of a union contract cost taxpayers more than $5 million last year, according to documents obtained by The Washington Examiner.

Travel and other expenses to send about 2,100 VA employees to more than two dozen such events totaled $5.3 million, but those costs were only one of many perks the department agreed to pay for under the agreement with the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE).

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