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Vets Unemployment Up: Jobs or Income

By VVAW

The latest unemployment figures say that unemployment among Vietnam-era veterans is now 719,000. And that's a hell of a lot of unemployed vets.

But the facts behind the figures are even worse. Over 200 thousand of these unemployed vets are between the ages of 35 and 39—hardly a period in life when people are just starting out and expecting to be laid-off. Another 250 thousand plus are between 30 and 35. Among the 35-39 year old group, vet unemployment is 25% higher than among non-vets of the same age.

As the national unemployment figures edge up toward am official 10% (and probably, figuring in people who have given up on looking for a job, young people who aren't yet on the federal roles, etc much higher than the government figures show), vets are being hit even harder than others. It's not too hard to figure out; as industry after industry gets clobbered by Reagan's economic plans, they lay off people with the least seniority and vets, who lost a couple of years of seniority while in the military end up getting laid off before others of the same age.

And what is the government doing for the vets who served their country and now are suffering for that time? The answer is the usual: not one thing!

In the years immediately following the Vietnam was, there was the chance for vets to go to school; the GI Bill was not enough to live on, in many cases, and it was often messed up by VA bureaucrats with late payments and red-tape hassles, but at least it was there. But that expired for most Vietnam-era vets after 10 years. Various government training programs which either supported vets in training or gave significant tax breaks to companies which would train Vietnam vets, all of these programs have stopped. Vets are on their own, and often that means they're also out in the cold.

One of the demands of the Bonus Army of 1932 was for unemployment compensation which did not exist at that time. In fact their efforts were successful; though the system of unemployment compensation did not come immediately, the vets' efforts were important for the eventual winning of unemployment compensation. The idea then—and now—was to provide a cushion for those whose jobs were lost through no fault of their own. But in the kind of recession that Reaganomics has plunged us into, and given the many attempts by the Reagan Administration to change rules and cut off as many people as possible the whole system of unemployment compensation no longer can fill the needs that were hoped for and fought for—by vets as well as other workers.

But the Reagan attack on the unemployed don't stop there. Reagan can go on TV, complain about the media interviewing the unemployed worker from "South Succotash," and talk about how he finds pages full of help wanted ads in the local papers. In different terms Reagan is putting out his view (and that of his Republican backers) that anyone who isn't working is clearly a worthless bum not worth further consideration—a strong point of view from someone whose last honest job was as a baseball commentator in the 1930's.

Yes, there are jobs in the help-wanted columns; some of them require skills or background that few have. Some—like the favorite suggestion for vets as a security guard—are jobs with little present and no future. There are jobs open for one whose particular skill has learned over the last ten years and which has, up till now, provided a sound bias for building a family and some economic security. For vets it's the old story—from the front lines on the battlefield to the front lines in unemployment offices.

At present there is no program sponsored by the government which will do anything to help the vets out of work. Such programs are possible— on the job training with a guarantee that the job will last (unlike earlier programs where corporations could get tax breaks for training a vet for 6 months and then let them go and start the process again with a new vet). But as long as Reagan and his cronies figure we need all the money for the military, and that anyone who loses a job does so because he or she somehow wants to (or that people are poor because that's what they want) neither vets nor anyone else who isn't working will get much help.

During DC IV Vietnam vets and others will be demonstrating that there are thousands upon thousands who want to work—and we'll be demanding JOBS OR INCOME!