Military Veterans Deserve Jobs When They Return
 |
|
While we take the time this Veterans Day to honor the courage and sacrifice shown by our veterans, we should also rededicate ourselves to making sure vets have a secure and stable life after they finish their service.
The U.S. Labor Department reports the unemployment rate among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans is 11.3 percent, significantly above the overall rate of 10.2 percent for the nation as a whole. Some 185,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are out of work. Many of these unemployed veterans are National Guard or Reserve troops who were called to duty but found when they came home that their old jobs were no longer there for them.
The AFL-CIO Union Veterans Council is calling on Congress to strengthen and enforce the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, which ensures veterans can claim their former jobs when they return from active duty.
In his Veterans Day message, Union Veterans Council Chairman Mark Ayers quotes President Franklin Roosevelt who signed the first GI Bill into law in 1944:
What our servicemen and women want, more than anything else, is the assurance of satisfactory employment upon their return to civil life.
Writers Guild Workshops Help Vets Tell Their Stories
 |
||||
|
||||
Returning veterans often have a hard time adjusting to civilian life and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) Foundation is helping them find an outlet to tell their stories. Since April 2008, the foundation has held weekend-long writing workshops in which professional writers mentor veterans and active duty military personnel, encouraging them to express themselves in writing.
John Markus, first vice president of the foundation, says the workshops have caught on in the communities where they have been held. They are open to any member of the armed forces who has served in recent conflicts and who has a desire to write. Workshops have been held in Columbus, Ohio, and San Antonio, with more planned.
Markus says the WGAE members, many of whom are major award winners (Markus has won an Emmy) don’t try to tell the vets what to write. Instead they help vets navigate through writing process. Not all of the stories are about war or military life, but vets are encouraged to write about whatever is on their minds. Says Markus:
We specifically did not want to influence content. We reassured vets that they would own their material. If they wanted to try and get it published or find an agent or get studios to read their scripts, we could facilitate that.
Helmets to Hardhats Launches ‘Good to Go’ Site for Returning Troops
 |
|
Making the transition from military life to a civilian life is not easy. Many veterans and their families are unprepared when that day comes. Now Helmets to Hardhats, a nonprofit program of the AFL-CIO’s Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD), has launched a new website to help veterans better prepare for re-entry into civilian life.
Good to Go (G2G) provides service members with customizable checklists that cover everything from employment and housing to setting goals for the future.
Says Darrell Roberts, executive director of Helmets to Hardhats:
The best welcome home for a returning service member is a seamless transition into a quality civilian career.
Veterans Council Is Newest Constituency Group
 |
||||
|
||||
Recognizing the service of the millions of veterans in the union movement, the AFL-CIO today voted to add the Union Veterans Council as the seventh AFL-CIO constituency group.
American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (AFM) President Thomas Lee, a Marine Corps veteran, said the establishment of the constituency group will bring together union members who are veterans to speak out on veterans issues and support the appointment of labor-friendly veterans to government agencies.
J. David Cox, secretary-treasurer of AFGE and a former VA nurse, said we owe our freedoms to those veterans who protected our freedoms.
Vets: Employee Free Choice Affirms Freedoms We Fought For
 |
||||
|
||||
This Fourth of July, there will parades, picnics, family gatherings and speeches about what it means to be an American and a patriot.
For the men and women who have served in the military, being a patriot means fighting at home to protect the freedoms they defended in conflicts abroad. And for millions of them, that means belonging to a union.
Take Brett McElfresh, a member of Plumbers and Pipefitters (UA) Local 94 in Canton, Ohio. McElfresh served four years in the U.S. Army, including a tour in Iraq. He is the first member of his local to join the Helmets to Hardhats program sponsored by by the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD). The program has helped more than 5,000 military vets find new careers as electricians, plumbers, roofers and in other skilled trades.
Employee Free Choice Act: Restoring the Balance
Two great op-eds this week—one from an Arkansas minister and one from a Maine elected official and Iraq war veteran—make the case that America’s workers need the Employee Free Choice Act.
Writing in the northwest Arkansas Morning News, the Rev. Roger Joslin of All Saints Episcopal Church in Bentonville tells the compelling story of how his father had the chance to provide for his family because he belonged to a union. All workers need that opportunity, the Rev. Joslin says:
There currently exists a stark imbalance of power between corporations and the workers who make corporations successful.
Without an employee’s ability to organize with others, power lies exclusively in the hands of the company owners and management. The Employee Free Choice Act, currently being considered by Congress, would begin to redress this imbalance by making it easier for employees to form unions.
Iraq Veteran: My Union Gives Me a Chance in a Tough Economy
 |
||||
|
||||
As one of the millions of America’s workers who have been laid off in recent months, Brandon McGuire knows it’s tough going in the current economy. He also recognizes that as a union member, he is better equipped than his nonunion counterparts to survive an economic downturn. That’s why he supports the Employee Free Choice Act: so millions more workers can have a better chance at their freedom to form a union and bargain for a better life.
McGuire, an Army veteran, served a year in Iraq, where his duties included welding projects. He moved to Anchorage, Alaska, after his military service and signed on as an apprentice with Plumbers and Pipe Fitters (UA) Local 367.
A native of Texas, where union membership is relatively low, McGuire had no firsthand knowledge or experience with union workplaces before joining his local union. He now describes himself as 100 percent pro-union and pro-Employee Free Choice because of the job training and financial security union jobs can provide.
Honoring Military Vets Means Fixing the Economy—Employee Free Choice Does Just That
As pundits and policymakers debate the Employee Free Choice Act, it’s worth remembering what this fight is really about: giving workers the freedom they deserve to bargain for a better life. In a new newspaper op-ed, Mike Allen explains why we need the Employee Free Choice Act and how it can ensure workers have the tools they need to bargain for a better life.
Allen, a U.S. Air Force veteran and member of the Letter Carriers (NALC), writes in the Bangor Daily News that the freedom to form a union gives returning veterans and all workers the chance they deserve to bargain for a better life and join the middle class.
Working hard used to give everyone a chance to improve their lives, but working families really have it rough right now.
The news for veterans is not any better. One out of five veterans who recently returned from tours of duty remains unemployed. One out of four veterans finding a job since leaving the service earns less than $21,840 a year.
Coerced, Harassed, Suspended: A Virginia Worker’s Case for Employee Free Choice
Billy Mason, a Virginia factory worker, is one of the thousands of workers who has suffered unfair treatment while trying to exercise the freedom to form a union and bargain for a better life.
Writing in southeast Virginia’s Daily Press, Mason talks vividly about the struggles he went through to form a union.
Imagine a football game between one team with cleats, helmets and shoulder pads playing another that doesn’t have any equipment at all. It’s not only that companies have all kinds of advantages, but also that workers are so vulnerable to abuse. The Employee Free Choice Act will help even the playing field.
I’ve been through two organizing campaigns, and I hope my experience will explain why we desperately need this legislation.
Veterans Keep Up the Pressure for Employee Free Choice
 |
Montana military veterans visited Senate offices in Missoula, Billings and Great Falls over the past week, encouraging Sen. Jon Tester to support the Employee Free Choice Act, a critical bill to restore the freedom to form unions and bargain. And veterans from Alaska to Maine are joining this important fight.
Their actions are all part of a nationwide grassroots campaign focused on giving workers a choice in how they form unions, ending widespread intimidation and firing of workers who are seeking to form unions, and making sure that workers who choose a union can get a fair first contract.
Dorsey Roland, a U.S. Army veteran and member of Letter Carriers (NALC) Local 4319, wrote a new op-ed published in the Anchorage Daily News describing why veterans are getting involved with the fight for the Employee Free Choice Act. Roland says the bill is about fairness for workers, accountability for corporations and an economy that works for everyone:
According to a report by the Department of Veterans Affairs, 18 percent of veterans recently back from tours of duty are unemployed. And of those who are employed, 25 percent earn less than $21,840 a year. That is wrong. Veterans have sacrificed too much to be left in the cold.
