While you are researching the whole issue of being terminated due to your military responsibilities interfering with your work, file a claim for unemployment benefits. This will help you sort out the issues and figure out exactly what is going on in relation to what they say is the reason you were terminated.
That they tried to get you to cut someone's hours until they quit shows that they are cheap idiots who are on the look out for ways to try to knock people out of unemployment benefits even when they are legally entitled to them. That you refused to do it may have been borderline insubordination. And they may be truly rotten bad people who do a lot of bad rotten and unfair things on the job.
But actually, they have, by terminating you for what sounds like a clearly illegal reason, due to your military obligations, done you a favor.
File a claim for unemployment. Say exactly what you were told. Now, listen carefully to me. LEAVE OUT ALL THE EXTRA ISSUES. Okay? Forget about how they told you to treat some guy bad and you refused. How they invited you to a Christmas meeting that involved broads and booze and your wife won't find out, and that they are taking money out of the store's account, whatever else they did wrong and unfair and all those things. These things ARE NOT your job to report or fix or even to bring up.
Keep it related to one issue, and one issue only, and that is the reason you were terminated.
This trying to tell a big old general story about what an all-out bad place to work it was, and how they've done this and this and then this and then that just muddies up the issue to the point that it is impossible to tell whether or not something illegal actually occurred. Save it, stay on topic. Just the facts, please, the facts related to this one issue of why you have been terminated.
In regard to unemployment, it is legal for the employer to fire you for just about anything. However, when you have been fired, they cannot keep you from drawing unemployment benefits unless they can show they had a valid work related misconduct reason to fire you, with write ups, progressive discipline and your awareness that you needed to change your behavior or you would be fired. For them to say they were going to fire you because of your military service requirements was (for them) an incredibly dumb thing to do, because they could've told you they were going to fire you for having stinky feet, or a bad attitude or blue eyes, and that would've been legal, but firing someone in the guard because of their guard duties is not. So you want to keep it all related to that one issue. Be sure you tell the unemployment system that you always did your job to the best of your abilities.
Workplaces do not have to be fair. They do not have to treat people decently. They do not have to only fire people or get rid of them for good reasons. They do not have to be good to you because you are a veteran. Or a woman. Or a fine doggone person. They can steal money from their own accounts. They do not have to follow their own rules. They do, however, have to accommodate a veteran's military responsibilities. This is the issue you need to keep it related to.
Filing a claim for unemployment is not filing a complaint against the employer with the DOL. It is just the first one thing that you do, because everything else related to filing a claim of discrimination against them regarding veteran status is going to take a lot longer and will be done through totally different agencies.
