Waste Management’s Quiroa said safety is the company’s number one priority. “Any unsafe behavior is swiftly and fairly addressed,” she said, adding that the company provides drivers with a minimum of 80 hours of safety training a year.
Quiroa declined to comment on Santillan’s specific case, stating that it’s a personnel matter. She would not discuss whether Waste Management is considering reinstating Santillan.
Manhattan Beach Mayor Nick Tell said this week that while Waste Management is an independent contractor and there’s nothing the city can do about Santillan’s job, he has reached out to the company. “We have made it really clear that part of the reason we stuck with Waste Management was because they were going to stick with their employees,” Tell said. “We hope they take that into account when these things come up.”
Santillan, one of seven siblings, started working for Waste Management in 1979, about a year after he immigrated to the United States from Cuernavaca, Morelos in Mexico when he was in his early 20s.
Since his termination, he’s been frustrated and depressed, his brother said. “I see my brother in the morning, awake very early, because 32 years working every day, you wake up at four in the morning,” Pedro said. “I say, ‘Come on brother, stay, sleep, stay in the bed more.’ ‘No, I can’t.’ He’s very nervous.”
“I don’t think he knows what to do with himself,” DuRoss said. “He worked 32 years, 12- to 14-hour days.”
Santillan is eager to return to a daily routine. “He waits for one day for the company to recognize they made the mistake and he gets back his job,” Pedro said.
