Claire Valdez Plans to Take the Labor Movement to Washington
Claire Valdez argues that worker power is built through organizing unions on the shop floor. Days after winning New York’s 7th District Democratic primary, she returned to the labor fights she says elected office should serve.
Just a few years ago, Claire Valdez was struggling to make ends meet and organizing with her coworkers through her union. As she now heads to Congress, Valdez is assessing how she can use her position to support union organizing efforts. (Michael Nagle / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
After fifteen years cleaning rooms at the Fairfield by Marriott in Times Square, Ramona Garcia told the crowd, she earned just $22 an hour. Every week, she paid about $100 for health insurance. She had no pension. After finishing her shift at the hotel, she cleaned private homes to make ends meet.
“We need higher wages,” she said. “We need health care we can afford. We need to have a way to retire. But what we need most of all is respect.”
It was July 1, and hundreds of members of New York’s Hotel and Gaming Trades Council (HTC) were gathered outside the Fairfield and the neighboring Four Points by Sheraton Midtown Times Square hotel on West 40th Street. Nearly four years earlier, workers at the two hotels had voted to unionize. They were still waiting for a first contract and had launched an unfair labor practice boycott of the two locations. The union accuses management of refusing to bargain in good faith, discriminating against union supporters, and replacing union positions with subcontracted workers.
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