Hortencia Armendariz has been in the labor movement for over 21 years, since she began as a grassroots community organizer for the United Farm Workers in the borderlands of the tip of Texas. She has worked with SEIU since 2005, leading statewide campaigns, operationalizing vision and programs, and developing strong leaders. In Texas, she organized public-sector workers and negotiated with school districts and public administrations at the city and county levels over worker benefits and working conditions.

In 2009, she joined SEIU-UHW in the Kaiser Permanente Division, where she worked on the labor-management partnership and led the field program through two contract negotiations. Armendariz currently leads the Healthcare Justice division of SEIU-UHW, which organizes everyday people around the mission of ensuring everyone has affordable, accessible, high-quality care provided by valued and respected caregivers. The innovative program identifies, recruits, and trains patients, healthcare consumers, and working families to advocate for themselves as leaders in their communities and to navigate the political environment to achieve healthcare justice. Armendariz is also on the board of the SEIU International Latino Caucus. She studied International Relations at the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterey (ITESM) in Monterey, Mexico.