FAYETTEVILLE — More than 500 protesters lined College Avenue in front of the Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks to oppose cuts planned for the federal Department of Veterans Affairs.

The protest came days after the union organizing Saturday’s rally won a court case to stop an earlier round of firings.

“If there’s waste and abuse you can cut it without taking out a chainsaw,” said Doris Cassidy of Fayetteville, a retired associate administrator of the Fayetteville system who joined the protest. The department should use its reduction in force policy if it wants to cut the workforce, but the department instead announced indiscriminate firings, she said.

“What we’ve created is chaos.”

Cassidy served as associate administrator for 20 years and worked at the Fayetteville location for more than 50, she said. During the ice storm of 2009, many system employees slept on the floor at night to serve patients because roads were dangerous. Hearing them called wasteful and lazy as a justification for these cuts is revolting, Cassidy said.

The Associated Press obtained an internal department memo last week showing the department plans to return to 2019 staffing levels of less than 400,000 employees. This would require firing more than 80,000 employees. These cuts and others stem from executive orders by President Donald Trump.

“President Trump is delivering on his promise to rein in an out-of-control federal government,” said Maya Harvey, communications director for the Republican Party of Arkansas. “His bold leadership will grow our economy and help create millions of good-paying jobs for American workers.”

Inadequate staffing led to scandals that in turn led to the increases in staffing that the department is now trying to roll back, protesters interviewed said.

“The press keeps calling these layoffs,” said Bruce Appel, president of local 2201 of the American Federation of Government Employees. “They’re not layoffs. With a layoff you might get your job back. They’re firing people.”

The national federation filed suit along with other unions and nonprofit groups to stop the firing of probationary employees announced in February. Newly hired or promoted workers serve on a probationary period of at least one year before civil service job protections take effect.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup of San Francisco ruled Thursday the firings of probationary employees violated federal law. News accounts quoted Alsup as saying from the bench: “It is a sad day when our government would fire some good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that is a lie.”

The government claimed these workers, who numbered in the thousands, were laid off for poor performance to avoid proper reduction in force procedure so the workers could be fired quickly, Alsup ruled.

“The words that I give you today should not be taken that some wild-and-crazy judge in San Francisco said that an administration cannot engage in a reduction in force,” Alsup said, according to news accounts. “It can be done, if it’s done in accordance with the law.”

The administration is appealing Alsup’s decision.

Angela Durbon of Rogers, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, called Saturday’s protests against the cuts a winnable fight.

“Don’t mess with veterans,” she said at the protest.

Cindy Donald of Springdale, a retired U.S. Army sergeant first class, agreed. Those who are not veterans know people who are, she said. The health system always provided her veteran family members with good care, but the disruption of the layoffs of the probationary employees has already caused problems, she said.

“My sister called to get an appointment and her call was not returned for a week and a half,” Donald said, which never happened before.

Vietnam veteran Jim Hale of Fayetteville said the layoff attempt is a huge step in the drive to turn veterans health care into an insurance company. Hale is a retired U.S. Army staff sergeant.

“They started telling veterans to go to private doctors, and the department would pay for it at Medicaid rates,” Hale said. “How many psychiatrists do you think there are in Yell County?” he asked, saying many veterans cannot find needed medical specialists where they live. For now, they can come to the veterans health care system.

“I’m on the patient council” Hale said of the Ozarks system. “We propose things to the administration they like, but they can’t do them because they’re short on staff already.”

Saturday’s protest was originally planned to take place on the veterans hospital grounds in Fayetteville, but organizers were told Friday afternoon to stay outside those grounds, Appel said. The main gates to the medical center were shut, but those seeking care still had access through a guarded gate on Woolsey Avenue.

The Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks released a statement Saturday about the planned staff cuts.

“We want to reform the department so we can serve veterans better than ever before,” it read. “VA is already redirecting billions of dollars from non-mission critical efforts to veteran-facing services, which will result in massive improvements without cutting health care or benefits.

“We have an obligation to make VA work better for the veterans, families, caregivers and survivors we are charged with serving, and that is exactly what we will do.”

Another protest, an “empty chair town hall” absent members of the state’s congressional delegation, started at 1 p.m Saturday, according to organizer Indivisible NWA. The event took place at the Good Shepard Lutheran Church in Fayetteville.