Lobby Day 2017 Brings TWU Power to Albany
MAY 16 -- In an impressive show of unity and activism, more than 1,500 transit workers converged on the state capital Tuesday to lobby for TWU Local 100’s legislative agenda, including pension reform. Rolling back the unfair burdens of Tier 6, including elevated worker contribution rates, was the major theme of the annual Lobby Day event in Albany. Members also focused on transit worker safety concerns including a legislative mandate for Conductors on all trains in excess of 4 cars, and a pension credit buy-back for Station Agents laid off during the Walder cutbacks of 2010.
Transit workers in “Fix Tier 6” tee shirts filled the Convention Center where members of the state Senate and Assembly praised transit workers and pledged support. “Thank you for moving New York,” the influential Sen. Jeffrey Klein (D-Bronx) said from the stage. “Thank you for the work that you do. Thank you for making sure that the transit system is the best that it can be.” Klein told the enthusiastic crowd “you deserve equity in the pension system and we’re going to make sure we get this done in this legislative session.” Klein heads the Independent Democratic Conference, a breakaway group of eight Democratic senators aligned with the Republican Party. Combined, the Independent Democrats and Republican senators hold the balance of power in the chamber. “You move New York,” Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, a Long Island Republican, said from the podium. “We know that and we appreciate that. We want to help you. We want to work with you.”
TWU Local 100 and International President John Samuelsen cautioned that victory will not be easy. Still, Samuelsen said Local 100 for years has been working on increasing its political clout. A growing number of Assembly and Senate members attribute their elections and reelections to the support received from Local 100. “Our political support is at peak strength and we’re going to use it to drive home pension reform,” Samuelsen said. “We now stand a very solid chance of incrementally rolling back Tier 6.” Local 100 allies in the Legislature have introduced two pension-reform bills targeting Tier 6. One bill would eliminate the $15,000 cap on annual overtime that can be added to a worker’s base salary when calculating what his or her pension payments will be in retirement. Another bill would reduce workers’ pension contributions to 2%. Workers now under Tier 6 contribute between 3% and 6%, depending on their income. The Tier 6 pension was enacted by the state Legislature in 2012 and imposed on a wide range of public sector workers hired on or after April 1st of that year. The majority of transit workers hired before 2012 are in Tier 4. They do not have a pension-related overtime cap, and they contribute 2% towards their retirement.
TWU Local 100’s argument for a Tier 6 rollback is simple, strong and just, Samuelsen said. Unlike other unions, Local 100 secured the Tier 4 terms decades ago through collective bargaining, whereby the MTA agreed to jointly support pension legislation in Albany as part of overall collective bargaining agreements that included concessions in other areas to pay for the improvements.
Local 100 was able to save the 25-55 pension for transit workers in the initial push back against Tier 6 in 2012, but legislators in 2012 ignored the TWU-MTA bargaining history when they imposed other terms of the new plan. “They have to undo the dirty deed done to us in 2012,” Samuelsen said. “This is a just fight and we have a solid argument. New York State had no right turning the collective bargaining process on its head.”