Alma Garzon, District 12 Health Care Workers Council Coordinator

Contact Information:
(760) 810-5116
agarzonusw183@gmail.com

Alma Garzon didn’t grow up in a union household. She wasn’t even sure she wanted to join the union when organizers first visited her workplace at St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley, Calif.

“When the union came around, I had no union background or education,” said Garzon. “All I knew was that they were talking about paying dues. So, I became educated to understand what that meant and ended up as our local’s first financial secretary.”

Now, eight years later, Garzon is both the District 12 coordinator for the USW Health Care Workers Council and president of Local 183, which represents some 750 workers at the acute care hospital that serves communities of the High Desert.

Though she “sort of tumbled” into the job and the position, both her work as an emergency room financial counselor and her activism as a local union leader make perfect sense given her compassionate nature and gift for connecting.

“I like to care for others and educate and be the voice for those who need it,” said Garzon. “It comes naturally to me.”

This type of natural drive and passion is certainly needed in an industry plagued by workplace violence and impending automation, which she believes is the biggest problem currently facing health care workers. She already sees the change as employers begin replacing employees with monitors and computers.

“We’re losing that one-on-one connection with the patients, and I worry that will end compassion,” she said. “How compassionate can a monitor or computer be? Sometimes a patient just needs to hold someone’s hand and have them say it’s going to be okay.”

This is one of many reasons why Garzon realized she and her fellow workers needed a union. Solidarity, she believes, will be the only way to move forward.

“We need to figure out how to prevent that and prove that we’re valuable as workers and that patients deserve human compassion.”

Garzon uses every opportunity to learn and pass on the knowledge to others. She will soon be taking her activism and education to the next level by going abroad for the first time when she joins a small delegation of Steelworker activists at Unite the Union’s health care sector conference in November in Brighton, England. The event will focus on Garzon’s biggest concerns—automation, AI, digitalization, and their effects on health care workers.

“I always believe you learn something new every day, and this is a chance to do that,” Garzon said. “The more I learn about the union, I just want more.”

When she isn’t working or digging for knowledge, Garzon enjoys spending time outdoors or playing games with her family, including her children, whom she makes sure to encourage to get union jobs to better their futures.

“Being union means having a voice,” she said. “I’m someone with a union—I’m no one without it.”