Waterloo veteran couple addresses national UAW vets conferences
Yolando, Chiquita Loveless at regional, national UAW conferences for second year
WATERLOO — They were back by popular demand.
Two married career military veterans from Waterloo with a combined 50-plus years of service, were, for the second year in a row, making presentations to a national conference of the United Auto Workers this past week.
Black Hawk County Veteran Affairs Commission executive director Yolando Loveless and Chiquita Loveless, dean of students for family and military programming at the University of Northern Iowa, were presenters last week at the annual UAW National Veterans Conference at the Walter and May Reuther Family Education Center at Black Lake, in Onaway, Mich.
\”This is a summit for UAW (affiliated) employees who are veterans,” Yolando Loveless said.
“That’s a huge feather (in the cap) for Black Hawk County Veteran Affairs and UNI,” Chiquita Loveless said.
The couple also gave similar programs at a UAW regional conference in Ottawa, Ill. This is the second year the Lovelesses conducted sessions at both conferences. More than 800 people attended the Michigan conference.
The Lovelesses, both career U.S. Navy warrant officers, were invited by representatives of the veterans committee of UAW Local 838 in Waterloo to make presentations at the Ottawa conference in 2023.
”They invited me to come out and present a brief on veterans with disabilities,” Yolando said. Chiquita originally came along to support her husband. “But when the found out she was a veteran, they wanted her to speak to the female veterans.”
UAW Local 838, which represents unionized workers at John Deere and other employers, is one of the largest public-sector manufacturing union locals in Iowa and the largest local in the chain of UAW locals representing Deere workers companywide.
Based the quality of their presentations there, they were invited to the national conference in Michigan. They were formally invited back to both conferences this year.
The couple said their role at the conference is a credit to the entire Cedar Valley and testimonial to the quality of the area’s service to veterans.
Attendees at both the Ottawa and Michigan conferences included veterans seeking individual assistance as well as union members trying to learn how to provide outreach to veterans. Yolando noted some of the union workers come from larger population centers where it’s a challenge to provide and receive one-on-one support and service.
Mental health, outreach and camaraderie opportunities among veterans were discussion topics, as well as the recent PACT Act legislation expanding federal Veterans Administration care and benefits for Veterans exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange, and other toxic substances.
In addition to their presentations, Chiquita Loveless conducted a “fireside chat” with women veterans.
“We think sometimes we have to be wife, mother, aunt and all these other things. We can’t do that without taking care of ourselves,” she said, noting a local “Women who Serve” veterans group has been formed in that regard. “You have women dealing with their situations at work in a male-dominated culture and therapy is needed.”
The Lovelesses said they often found themselves doing one-on-one counseling work with individual veterans after their presentations. “They ask a lot of questions, and they’re comfortable,” Chiquita Loveless said. She said union officials told them, “ ‘You’re back by popular demand’ “
She said veteran union members were very attentive at their presentations and lined up to ask individual questions afterward.
The conferences are timely given the current layoffs at Deere, Yolando Loveless said, noting similar layoffs occurred elsewhere last fall during a strike at UAW-represented auto plants. He said his office is prepared to complement assistance and benefits any displaced workers who are veterans may receive. While his office hasn’t seen an influx of laid-off veterans yet, “we’re ready,” he said.
Some workers just simply put off getting help, which is understandable, Yolando said. “Even though you served your country, your mind is tuned to what your job is and putting food on your table for your family.” The word needs to be spread locally and nationally to veterans in the workplace about the emotional help available to them, as well as material in times of economic hardship.
Chiquita Loveless said that includes making postsecondary students such as those at UNI aware of the help available to them, including leads on potential jobs.
“Being able to speak before the UAW veterans, I say it’s a honor,” Chiquita Loveless said.
”I would hope this continues,” Yolando said. “It gives me an opportunity to see what other states are doing to educate their veterans. It makes me grow too. What I hope to do is at least set where they can bring in other veteran services officers and get out the information> It doesn’t matter what state we’re in, we’re supposed to be providing consistent information for the veteran. And I don’t see that consistency.
”With me and Chiquita’s case, love of the military is already in us. So, love of a veteran, that’s just second nature,” Yolando said. “We’re in their shoes.”
The turnout was racially and culturally diverse and attendees “make you feel like you’re part of the team,” Chiquita Loveless said.
Yolando’s family has union roods. His late father, Jesse Loveless, and mother Caroline were UAW members at Deere and Caroline has served on the UAW Community Action Program (CAP) committee, the union’s political action arm.
Yolando served 30 years in the Navy and Chiquita served 23 years. The met while both were attached to the aircraft carrier USS Ranger and were wed in the Philippines.
Pat Kinney is a freelance writer and former longtime news staffer with the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier and, prior to that, several years at the Ames Tribune. He is currently an oral historian with the Grout Museum District in Waterloo. His “View from the Cedar Valley” column is part of “Iowa Writers Collaborative,” a collection of news and opinion writers from around the state who previously and currently work with a host of Iowa newspapers, news organizations and other publications. Click on their links below to sample their work.
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