Yellow ribbons aren't enough: "Little help for reservists who lose their jobs"

[CAG]

Those whose "support" is little more than flag-waving and having yellow ribbons on the back of their oil/gas guzzling SUV's need to read and ponder this story. Notice the lack of enforcement (ie, competency) of the federal govt; hmm, might that be that the repub's drain the resources of these agencies so that more bombs and planes can be built by their lobby friends employers of bechtel, boeing, etc?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15754186 /

"One military survey found that as many as 22 percent of reservists have had trouble getting their job back as promised, and that most never file a complaint with the government.

One reason, some reservists say, the system has a reputation of being ineffective, almost toothless.

"I think there is a real problem with enforcing the law," says Sam Wright, a former attorney with the Department of Labor.

In 2005, investigators with the Government Accountability Office found that:

complaints get lost in bureacracy;
agencies don't share information;
and response time is slow."

[TechBear_Seattle]

1. Sad, very sad

And of course, the Repugs haven't lifted a finger to help them out. Will the Democrats, I wonder?

[Tellurian]

4. Any company that hires a retuning VET gets a Tax Cut!

problem solved!

[TechBear_Seattle]

7. Not really

We will end up where middle managers who used to make $75,000 a year before their call-up working at McDonalds for 15 hours a week at minimum wage.

How about a very hefty tax fine -- as a tax, that would mean it's paid every year -- against companies that do not hire back employees to a comparable job with comparable pay when those employees answered a National Guard call-up?

[Horse with no Name]

2. Going to be hard to put this in a coherent thought, but let me try

When speaking of active duty, for every man deployed we have to have two stateside. Ideally, one ready to go and one who has just returned. Even though it doesn't work out that way.
However, when speaking of reservists and NG, the same does not hold true which is why they have been so abused. They are freebies which this administration uses propagandishly in their military figures.
Now follow me, a reservist and National Guard are considered employees of the government. So when they are deployed, do they count those as jobs and insert that into the "created jobs" figures?
And when they are called up, their jobs at home become open thus "creating" more jobs. So basically for each reservist/guard that goes overseas, there is an inflated value inserted into the formula for jobs created.
Now the tricky part comes when they come home. Because they are "technically" still in the Guard and Reserves...they are not considered unemployed because they are still available to be called back up.
Which leads to an assumption that they are the most abused soldiers that we have because their presence can conflate many economic/military indicators to the advantage of this administration.

[CAG]

3. I must protest!! Surely you wouldn't think this administration is using reservists

as their whipping boys and girls as they send them into their 3rd and 4th tours of duty????!!!!! And surely you wouldn't think this administration would cook the books of unemployed figures????!!!!

I'm shocked....SHOCKED, I tell you, by your cynical attitude.

;-) :sarcasm:

[Tellurian]

8. I think you've hit on something..

and should send your hypothesis to an appropriate Committee chaired by
one of the newly elected Demo Senators. I'm not sure which committee is
the appropriate venue. Could be Appropriations?

Perhaps someone will read here and provide some info.

[OneBlueSky]

5. correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't there a federal law that mandates . . .

that reservists and National Guard troops be guaranteed their jobs upon their return from active duty? . . . this is from way-back memory, so I'm not sure if I'm recalling correctly, but it seems to me that these folks had some kind of guarantee to prevent loss of employment while serving . . .

even if there is such a law, of course, it won't protect those who are self-employed or own their own small businesses . . . I've heard about a number of cases where families literally lost everything and went deeply into debt because the breadwinner was called up -- and then retained, and retained again . . .

[Nay]

6. That guarantee is only good for a year. If you are deployed longer

than that, employers don't have to hire you back.

[upi402]

9. Republicans spit on our troops

They don't fund their armor. They don't fund their health care psychiatric care. They don't support them over their corporate masters. They exploit them for political gain and abandon them when they are no longer of use.

They use them as they loot our tax money from the treasury.

I call that some serious spitting.