Public Employee Press

Labor says "Bring our troops home now!"

By Oct. 10, the 10th anniversary of the war in Afghanistan, close to 1,800 American service members had been killed there. Another 4,500 have died in the Iraq war.

Opposition to the wars has grown among U.S. union members, and in August the AFL-CIO issued its first anti-war statement.

"There is no way to fund what we must do as a nation without bringing our troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan. It is time to invest at home," said a statement from the 12 million-member labor federation.

In March, DC 37's parent union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, called on the country to "support our troops, bring them home and rebuild America."

Some estimates of the cost of the wars by the end of 2011 top $1 trillion and those funds are urgently needed for domestic social purposes, including health care, education, aid to states and cities and creating millions of good jobs.

While all working-class Americans are paying the bills, the 1 percent of the population in the active-duty military carries the heaviest burden. According to the Pew Research Center, 84 percent of them believe the public understands little of the problems soldiers and their families face.

Senior Sewage Treatment Worker John Quinn, a Local 1320 member at the Hunts Point Wastewater Treatment Plant, faced those problems as an Air Force Reservist who served two tours of duty in Iraq. "This experience opened my eyes to the poverty over there. If someone owns a goat, they are rich," he said.

Quinn worries that when America discusses pulling out of the war, attacks on the local population escalate. Like 96 percent of the veterans in the Pew study, he is proud of his service. In February, Technical Sergeant Quinn will return to active duty in Afghanistan.

Veterans Day, this year on Nov. 11, reminds us that war veterans bear the scars of emotional wounds and traumatic injuries to their bodies and brains. One-in-five American women veterans endured sexual trauma in uniform.

The veterans' unemployment rate is growing steadily, and up to 200,000 of those who have risked all are homeless on any given night. About 950 attempt suicide each month and 18 succeed. We can only start healing them and our country if we "bring them home and rebuild America."

—Jane LaTour