WASHINGTON, D.C.-On Tues. First Lady Michelle Obama (pictured) held a conference call with Cleveland Urban News.Com and  reporters and bloggers from across the nation to announce the celebration of  the first-year anniversary of an organization dubbed Joining Forces that she and Dr. Jill Biden created that has brought jobs to military spouses across the country, and to recognize 11 new corporate and other private sector companies that have joined the initiative and will bring 15,000 more job opportunities this year alone."

"Since we started Joining Forces one of our biggest goals has been to address employment issues for not just our veterans but also for our spouses," the First Lady said."Arise Virtual Solutions, Alpine Access -- those are just a few, but there are so many other companies who have stepped forward on behalf of our families to lead the way.

A major highlight of the Joining Forces initiative is the reciprocity agreement for seniority on those jobs to transfer from participating companies in different U.S. cities, something that had not traditionally occurred for America's military spouses, mainly working class women, who would sometimes have trouble finding employment at all.

U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama

The current unemployment rate for U.S. war veterans that served in Afghanistan and Iraq is roughly 12.1 percent, data show.

While the pay range on the jobs, which are now typically customer service positions with telephone companies, is from $9.00 to $16.00 per hour, the First Lady said that the program is continually expanding with efforts to include broader participation.

"Every day we're reaching out to large corporations, to small businesses, to nursing associations, to colleges, to our faith-based community, to our mental health community, to our schools," Michelle Obama said.

The First Lady added that  “every few years they [military families] pack up and move state to state, oftentimes, they’re doing the work of two parents when their spouse is deployed for months at a time.”

The seniority provision of the First Lady's military jobs program comes at a time when Republican controlled state legislatures throughout the country  like Ohio's are pushing state laws to dismantle seniority protections in negotiated teachers collective bargaining agreements across the state beginning with the predominantly Black Cleveland Municipal School District, the state's only public school district subject to mayoral control.

Reach Journalist Kathy Wray Coleman at editor@clevelandurbannews.com and phone number: 216-932-3114.