Claire Valdez’s Bold Program for Labor in Congress

New York congressional candidate Claire Valdez just announced an ambitious pro-labor policy agenda, including labor law reform, ending at-will employment, and a federal jobs guarantee. Everyone who is hoping to revive labor’s fortunes should take note.

Socialist Claire Valdez, who is running for New York’s Seventh Congressional District, is advocating an ambitious pro-labor policy platform. (Courtesy of Scott Heins)


Labor law reform. Ending at-will employment. A federal jobs guarantee. A four-day workweek. Guaranteed paid family, medical, and sick leave and vacation. Medicare for All.

This list reflects the ambitious, long-standing policy goals of the labor left — goals that many have given up on after decades of demoralizing neoliberalism. It also happens to be a collection of highlights from socialist congressional candidate Claire Valdez’s labor policy platform, just released today.

Valdez, a New York State Assembly member who is now running for the Seventh Congressional District, is also calling for federal government support for new union organizing, legalizing strikes for federal employees, implementing pro-worker trade and industrial policy, raising the federal minimum wage, and expanding unemployment insurance. She is casting the proposals as furthering three goals: to establish “unions for all,” to “empower workers and end corporate dominance,” and to guarantee everyone the “freedom to live a good life.”

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