“I found a way through the military to gain that dignity and became a soldier, a leader. But when I came home, I found myself as that poor kid again in Southern Illinois because the economy was completely rigged against me. And I found myself struggling after serving multiple deployments in Iraq and serving my nation, leading soldiers until I found a welding program, I became a union pipefitter (and) my life got changed.” That’s Will Attig, Executive Director of the Union Veterans Council, interviewed on the AFL-CIO’s State of the Unions podcast. “There's a lot of similarities between military service and the labor movement, and I think that's one of the reasons why we see our veterans succeeding (and) thriving in the labor movement.” At the Union Veterans Council, “I want to be able to give the tools and the platforms to union veterans, to be able to advocate for themselves.” Find out more at unionveterans.org or @unionveterans on Twitter.