Claire Valdez has high hopes for labor

Mayor Zohran Mamdani was polling below 15 percent and had yet to receive an endorsement from any union when the United Auto Workers threw its support behind the soon-to-be hizzoner.

A small, progressive union relatively new to the bruising world of New York City politics, UAW Region 9A followed that bold move by endorsing two of their own for seats in the U.S. House of Representatives this year when few other unions would; Assemblymember Claire Valdez, formerly chair of a unit within Local 2110 at Columbia University, and Darializa Avila Chevalier, a member of Local 2325 as an investigator at a public defender's office.

In Democratic primaries on June 23, both won against opponents endorsed by numerous established, powerful unions with far more members than the UAW. Formerly a worker at a combination Taco Bell and Pizza Hut Express in Texas and a Trader Joe's in Chicago, Valdez won the primary for New York's 7th Congressional District, encompassing portions of Queens and Northern Brooklyn, by a large margin, and will likely face token opposition in November.

Reflecting on her journey from Lubbock, Texas to New York City in an interview with The Chief two days after her election victory, Valdez credited the UAW with her rise, saying her time in the union that's a "force to be reckoned with" transformed her into a fierce organizer.

Valdez, who was profiled in The Chief during her initial Assembly run, campaigned on a platform of "unions for all" and believes her experience battling bad bosses has prepared her perfectly for Washington D. C.

"The most important thing to me is that every single worker in this country can unionize their workplace and that we make the labor movement strong and vibrant and militant," she told The Chief.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The Chief: Your union, United Auto Workers Region 9A, made a pretty big bet on you in the primary, just as it did in the primary for Mayor Mamdani last year, however it was one of the few unions to endorse you. A lot of these more established, large unions endorsed your opponent. Obviously, you were victorious, as is UAW member Darializa Avila Chevalier. What do you think made the UAW succeed in these bets, succeed in these endorsements, where a lot of these unions made the wrong call?

Assemblymember Claire Valdez: I think a lot it has to do with that they know me and so were willing to go to bat.

I was in the UAW for six years. I started as a rank-and-file member, went up to the bargaining committee, ran for unit chair, got to be with my coworkers in really difficult moments of their professional lives and help to organize to win them justice. I think that relationship to UAW Region 9A was really strong, so they were willing to go to bat for me.

In my assembly race, and when I was considering whether or not I was going to run for congress, UAW was a big part of that conversation, they were really a big part of strategizing around it, thinking through it, trying to decide if this was something I should do in the first place. So, I think the reason they went to bat for me was because we were working together for this and we saw this as an opportunity to build UAW Region 9A's political muscle and we saw it as an opportunity to organize ahead of 2028 and think about that as an organizing horizon. 

They're running a really compelling and amazing political shop right now and the work they're doing right now very much is part of what I was doing as a rank-and-file member you know, talking to my coworkers about one-member-one-vote, what I worked on as a bargaining committee member trying to get my coworkers ready to potentially go on strike.

And now here we are in this moment, and we've arrived here brick by brick, really building this union over years and years. I think they were willing to go to bat for me for all of that work and because we share a real vision for what a united working class can win. 

TC: Were you disappointed not to get those other union endorsements? Do you think now that you've won the primary they'll come along and join the campaign? 

CV: I do think they will, and I've already been in contact with a few political directors and look forward to speaking with more. I've said this many times to many a union political director; the most important thing to me is that every single worker in this country can unionize their workplace and that we make the labor movement strong and vibrant and militant, and I look forward to working with them to do exactly that. 

TC: What do you think your win and Darializa's win mean for the future of the UAW in New York and organized labor in New York in general. 

CV: For me it means that UAW should be a force to be reckoned with, that we are asserting real political terms, that we are running a political operation that’s not just about a paper endorsement. It's about getting our members to call other members, it's about showing up to canvass consistently and it's about endorsing members of our own ranks and really prioritizing the idea that union members are the best people to fight in the halls of power because we know how to take on bad bosses and organize.

And I think UAW has a real orientation around doing exactly that, recruiting the members and running people who've had the experience of being on the shop floor. 

TC: One of your main policy positions on this campaign was "unions for all." How do you see that being implemented? 

CV: A lot of it is just making it as easy as possible for workers to organize their shops. Obviously passing the PRO Act is going to be important to overturn right-to-work laws in states and ban captive audience meetings, do ABC testing. It will just open the door for so many workers who I think have been up against huge corporations, union busting lawyers.

I proposed a federal fund for new organizing so that the United States government can really be on the side of the workers taking on some of the most powerful and moneyed interests, not just in the United States but in the entire world: Amazon, Walmart, Starbucks. But we can be on the side of workers who are taking these incredible risks, we don't have to sit on the sidelines and wait to see what happens.

So, I think there's a few things we can do to show which side we're on, and really materially help workers who are in the fight of their lives and really treat the decline of union density in this country as the emergency that it is. 

At the height of union density, a third of all workers were in unions and now it's around ten percent. That's a catastrophe, and we should be treating it like the emergency that it is.  

TC: One of those powerful interests you're very familiar with is Columbia University. Not only you but Darializa have affiliations or used to have affiliations with the university, do you think they'll see this election as a wakeup call? 

CV: It's a really good question. I hope they do. I really hope they do. 

I bargained against Columbia for a contract. I know what it's like to sit across the table from them, the way they talk about their workers. There are so many unions on campus, so many workers that are organized, and Columbia has really gone out of its way to carve members out, certainly of my unit, and to do union busting to make our lives really difficult, to disregard our contract.

I hope they see these wins and see that people coming out of that university either as a worker or as a student or as an organizer who is organizing against this $16 billion endowment institution that has been repressing free speech and retaliating against workers and students and faculty alike. 

 I hope they see that and they see the writing on the wall. And we'll see. I don't think Columbia changes course very easily. 

TC: You’ve come quite a long way from your time working at Taco Bell/ Pizza Hut Express and then Trader Joes. I'm wondering if you have any immediate reflections on this journey from Texas to Chicago to here, and from all those jobs to this new job you're about to step into. 

CV: (Laughs) Yea I feel like I haven't had time to reflect on this yet.

For me, what I've been thinking about lately is just that the power of organizations to transform everyday people is so strong and really beautiful. I got really involved in my union, it was the first time in my life I felt politically powerful and capable of taking on bosses that had made my life hard for a long time. 

Working at Trader Joe's and Taco Bell, I encountered bad managers, long hours, bad working conditions, but I never really thought there was anything I could do about it. I just thought that that was something that you endure for as long as you can and eventually you get a better job, but that there wasn’t a kind of way to fight back, and my union showed me that there is and we can organize together and win and stand solidarity with people who come from different backgrounds and work in different jobs.

And that was just really transformative, and I've been thinking a lot about why unions are so important and it's for that kind of transformation, I think. 

TC: After you won your seat in the state legislature, you held a symbolic inauguration where you were sworn in by [UAW Region 9A director] Brandon Mancilla, you had your had your hand on a copy of "No Shortcuts" by Jane McAlevey. Do you intend to do the same if you win in November? 

CV: Maybe. We haven’t decided what the program will look like.

I want my inauguration ceremony to reflect the values that I hold really dear. That was incredibly meaningful to me to be side by side with one of the great labor leaders in this country Brandon Mancilla, someone I got to know as a rank-and-file member years ago and certainly to be sworn in on one of the great organizing texts that this country has produced written by one of the greatest organizers Jane McAlevey, because I think it's really grounding, its grounding to remind ourselves that there are no shortcuts, and the work to organize does not end after a campaign or after inauguration.  

It continues every single day, and sometimes that work is as small as canvassing your coworkers for a contract and sometimes it's as big as winning a congressional race. But they’re all profoundly needed interventions in a system that has kept workers down for far too long, and that we have to win.