Claire Valdez Plans to Take the Labor Movement to Washington

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…