Meet Richard Hayes, the Black Man Who Picks Up Mitt Romney’s Trash

Richard is a City of San Diego sanitation worker whose route includes Mitt Romney's $12 million oceanfront villa in La Jolla, Calif.

By Jorge Rivas Oct 01, 2012

Even Mitt Romney’s garbage man, Richard Hayes, is taking offense to his [47 percent comments.](https://colorlines.com/archives/2012/09/mitt_romney_if_i_was_latino_id_have_a_better_shot_at_winning_this_thing.html) Hayes is a City of San Diego sanitation worker whose route includes Romney’s $12 million oceanfront villa in La Jolla, Calif. Hayes is featured in a new video spotlighting public service workers who provide services to Romney. The series juxtaposes the personal stories of public workers with Romney’s [47% comments](https://colorlines.com/archives/2012/09/mitt_romney_if_i_was_latino_id_have_a_better_shot_at_winning_this_thing.html) and his agenda to cut and privatize public services. "My name is Richard Hayes, and I pick up Mitt Romney’s trash. We’re kind of like the invisible people. He doesn’t realize that the service we provide — if it wasn’t for us, it would be a big health issue, us not picking up trash," Hayes says in the video. "We’re kind of like the invisible people. He doesn’t realize, you know, the service we provide… When I’m 55, 60 years old I know my body’s gonna be breaking down. Mitt Romney doesn’t care about that," Hayes goes on to say. The second video, "Meet Temo" features Temo Fuentes, a City of San Diego employee who fixes the fire trucks that service Mitt Romney’s neighborhood. (Fuentes’ mother used to clean houses in the area also.) The videos were produced by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO, and the workers featured are [AFSCME](http://www.afscme.org) members.