Before most Southern Californians wake up each morning, healthcare workers are already at work. Long before the first cup of coffee is served or the kids head off to school, thousands of drivers, mechanics, welders and sorters navigate busy streets, operate heavy machinery and perform one of the most dangerous jobs in the United States.
By the time most people start their day, our work has already helped make their communities cleaner, safer and healthier. Most people never think about us… until the trash stops being picked up. That reality is why September 30, 2026 represents a defining moment, not just for healthcare workers, but for all of California's working class.
For the first time in history, more than 3,000 healthcare workers represented by Teamsters Local 396, who work in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, will negotiate under the same contract expiration date. This unprecedented coordination is the result of decades of organizing, strategic negotiation, and the determination of generations of Teamsters who understood that workers are stronger when they stand together. Today, we stand on the shoulders of those who came before.
Under the leadership of our board of directors, headed by Secretary-Treasurer Víctor Mineros, our union has united thousands of healthcare workers in a single bargaining campaign with a simple but powerful message: Our time is now.
For decades, healthcare workers have helped build a multibillion-dollar industry while too often being treated as an afterthought. Companies like Republic Services, Waste Management, and other private collection companies make huge profits from an essential public service that cannot be outsourced overseas, automated overnight, or simply ignored. Garbage is big business.
Those who make this business possible deserve to share in the prosperity they help generate. However, too often we have been seen only through what we collect and not the value we create. We are not the garbage we collect. We are highly trained professionals who protect public health, keep our neighborhoods clean, respond during natural disasters, and provide a service every community depends on, every day of the year.
Our work is also extraordinarily dangerous. Every day brings the potential for serious injuries from distracted drivers, heavy machinery, hazardous materials, extreme temperatures, and unforgiving schedules. Every morning, our families say goodbye to us knowing that a seemingly routine workday involves risks that most Americans will never have to face.
No one should risk their life and still have difficulty achieving financial security.
That is why this negotiation campaign represents much more than a salary increase. It's about dignity. It's about respect. It's about security. This is about ensuring that work in the healthcare industry remains a career capable of supporting a family, buying a home and building a decent retirement.
This industry is driven by hard-working people. Many of us are immigrants or children of immigrants. We come from different cultures, speak different languages ​​and practice different religions. But at work and within our union we remain united as one force. That solidarity is our greatest power.
At a time when Americans are increasingly concerned about economic inequality, the concentration of corporate power, and the health of our democracy, unions remain one of the most effective institutions for ensuring that working people have a voice.
Democracy does not begin or end at the polls. It must also exist in the workplace. Collective bargaining gives workers the opportunity to negotiate wages, benefits, safety conditions, hours, and working conditions, rather than having those decisions imposed from above. That is democracy in action. Strong unions strengthen communities because they strengthen working families.
As healthcare workers with many years of experience, we have seen this industry evolve. Today, more and more young people are choosing careers as drivers, mechanics, welders and technicians. They deserve much more than a salary. They deserve careers with opportunity, stability and the real possibility of building a middle-class life. That's precisely what the Teamsters fight for.
Of course, we also know what we're facing.
We are dealing with some of the largest and most profitable corporations in the United States. They have enormous economic resources and influence. But history reminds us again and again that when the working class stays together it can achieve extraordinary things.
This campaign does not seek confrontation for its own sake. Our goal has always been to reach fair agreements through good faith negotiations. We believe that both workers and employers benefit from contracts that provide stability, fairness and mutual respect.
But justice requires the will of both parties.
If employers refuse to recognize the value that healthcare workers create every day, we are prepared to exercise our legal right to withdraw our workforce. That's not a decision any worker takes lightly. It is the last resort. However, history has shown that the most important advances for workers have occurred when they stand together and demand the respect they have earned.
We also know that we will not be alone.
Our fellow Teamsters have one of the strongest traditions of solidarity in the union movement. Our communities understand the essential role that healthcare workers play. And more elected leaders recognize that raising standards for essential workers strengthens the economy for everyone.
This campaign represents much more than a single contract. It's about raising the standards of an entire industry. It is about protecting migrant workers from exploitation. It's about ensuring that dangerous but essential work is rewarded with safe working conditions, fair wages and a stable future.
But above all, it is about preserving the promise that honest work must provide a dignified life.
For generations, unions helped build the American middle class. Today's healthcare workers are determined to ensure that promise survives for the next generation.
(*) Teamsters Local 396 trustees and long-time healthcare workers
