WHY DON’T UNIONS ALLY WITH VETERAN GROUPS?

Unions need all the help they can get these days and one need only look at the President to see how powerless someone can be without allies. So, why aren’t unions leaders knocking on the doors of the various Veterans organization to get their help with federal employee issues? A recent White House report shows that veterans are 31.1 percent of the entire Federal workforce, which includes the 13.3 percent of the workforce who are veterans receiving disability compensation. By comparison, veterans comprise only about 6 percent of the private sector non-agricultural workforce. What more evidence is needed to show that unions and veteran organizations have very substantial overlapping interests? The most fundamental job protections all feds have today came about in the 40s because Congress wanted to protect Vets returning from WW II, e.g., the adverse action due process protections. Somewhere along the line union leaders got cocky and thought they could go it alone.  We now see how foolish  that was. It is time one or more of the national union leader reached out to reestablish this natural alliance because strong collective bargaining rights benefit thousands of vets.