Sanman

Shortening of sanitation + man.

Full definition of sanman

(plural sanmen)

(New York City) A New York City sanitation department worker: a garbage collector. since the 1970s

1978, The New Yorker, volume 54, part 3, page 28:Sanmen get more on-the-job injuries than either policemen or firemen. Many of them strain their backs, undramatically but painfully, because, being so strong, they may forget to bend their knees when they're hoisting a garbage can. A lot of them get arthritis, and, as the Sanmen see it, fifteen years as a Sanman takes the same toll that twenty-five years as a policeman or a fireman does. The union got the city to extend civil-service classification to Sanmen in 1939,
1984, Ms. Magazine, volume 12/13, page 32:Ukeles has been shocked at the number of insults endured by the sanmen, and saddened by the shame some of them feel.
2008, Anne Pasternak, Creative Time: The Book, page 129:Then I walk some of the thousands of curb miles with the sanmen (at that time still an all-male workforce).