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NYC Vets Confront City Hacks For Jobs

By VVAW

Vietnam-era vets are one group of people particularly hard hit among the millions of unemployed. Vets have not been sitting idly back accepting this situation, but have been taking their dissatisfaction with the economy into the streets and confronting sham employment programs that make promises but can't deliver.

On Jan.20th, 100 Vietnam-era vets took over a branch office of the Mayor's Office for Vets Action (MOVA) in the Bronx. MOVA is a sham vets program set up by the city of New York to give the appearance that someone is doing something about the problems of vets, when in reality, no "action" occurs at all. MOVA is a front office with no budget of its own and no regular employees. Its personnel, with the exception of Commissioner Milton Williams, are borrowed from other NYC agencies to give the appearance of a functioning program. Mr. Williams, an ex-cop on salary for $40,000 a year, is a well known figure in New York; he participated in the Attica Massacre whitewash is suspected of having instigated the attack on VVAW/WSO members at Shea Stadium during the "Honor Vietnam Veterans Day" program, which he organized and directed. Vets in NYC have little doubt about whose interests Williams is really working for--and it is certainly not for the people.

The vets seized the Bronx office of MOVA because jobs previously promised to them had been withdrawn by the Mayor's Office. While the story given the vets was that a training program with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTS) had its job allocations frozen, the local MOVA bureaucrats spilled the beans under pressure. It seems that the training program arranged through MOVA by the MTA would have been hiring vets at low pay, while at the same time MTA is laying off hundred of its regular workers. After the union representing these MTA workers caught wind of this scheme, they told the Mayor's Office "no dice," MOVA then moved fast and cancelled the job allocations.

Informed of the reasons why there were no jobs to be had, an overwhelming majority of the vets responded that they wouldn't take jobs as scabs anyway. Faced with an angry crowd of predominately Black and Puerto Rican vets, the MOVA branch officials did a bureaucratic shuffle and tap dance and suggested the vets take their questions to Commissioner Williams' office and ask him why they were going to be used as scabs and why there were now no jobs available. Storming into the Commissioners office, the vets were once again put off by MOVA officials who assured them that jobs would be available the next morning at the branch office in the Bronx.

The vets returned to the Bronx office the following morning to find that only a few jobs were available. These jobs included doing finger printing, because security guards, janitorial work and a few other jobs that required a number of years experience. The pay scale for these positions averaged around $2.50 an hour with the jobs expiring in 13 months--meaning eventual layoffs. To top it off, requirements such as no bad discharges or criminal records went with the jobs. One vet Asked the Bronx officials, "What other types of discrimination are requirements?"

At this point, the enraged vets, including many who were forced to accept the "starvation-wage" jobs out of sheer desperation, had had it with the bullshit runaround the Mayor's Office had been giving them. Raising the two demands, "Decent Jobs" and "end Discrimination in Hiring." The militant group once again confronted the Commissioner's office and denounced MOVA for promising what they couldn't deliver and using slimy maneuvers to cover their lies. True to form, the Commissioner's office gave them the old "hang on folks, jobs for everyone are coming" routine which none of the vets swallowed this time.

While the vets left more or less empty handed and in disgust, during the course of the struggle, the New York City chapter of VVAW/WSO joined with the spontaneous vets group. They talked about how the problem of unemployment was one facing millions of American working people, and not just veterans. The VVAW/WSO chapter went on to say that veterans and other working people have to unite to demand jobs or income for all people, because only through this unity can we effectively fight the cutbacks presently confronting us all. They also discussed the role of these sham "vets opportunity" groups, which raise the banner of "vets-vets-vets" but do nothing. At the same time, the chapter talked about how groups such as MOVA attempt to separate the struggles of vets from other working people in this country by placing them on a pedestal rather than showing where their real unity lies. NYC VVAW/WSO is maintaining contact with these vets, and they intend to carry out more actions around unemployment in the future.

The problems these vets in New York are having finding jobs are the same problems facing millions of working people across the country. It is for this reason that VVAW/WSO is working around the crisis of unemployment--not only as it confronts vets, but as it affects all working people.