Lobby Day Rocks Albany as 1500 Transit Workers Stand Up for Pension Improvements and Security on the Job

1500 transit workers flooded Albany on March 1 as TWU's annual Lobby Day brought the rank and file out in force. TWU Local 100's top leadership ranged through the halls of the Legislative Office Building alongside members from every Department. We delivered packets of legislative agenda items to every legislator, and held scores of meetings with the elected officials. President Samuelsen met with Assembly Transportation Chair David Gantt on our quest to have more police officers assigned to details on buses to protect Operators. At the main event, TWU members were addressed by politicians including Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, Republican Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, Senators Adriano Espaillat and Martin Dilan, Assemblymembers Peter Abbate, Denise Richardson, Walter Mosley, Latrice Walker, and many others.

Tops on our legislative agenda included a bill to "fix tier 6" -- alleviating the extra burden of pension contributions on our newest members. We also went to Albany to increase criminal penalties for assaults against Cleaners, provide due process for School Bus Drivers, get bus partitions installed in Westchester, enhance pensions for health conditions, and fight back against the "vision zero" law.

The day's actions were reported by Politico and other news outlets.

Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, who were also at the rally, agreed that the issue of transit worker safety is crucial. “It pisses me off. No one should be assaulted on their jobs,” Flanagan, a Republican from Long Island, said at the rally while promising to partner with Heastie and Gov. Andrew Cuomo on a solution. Heastie agreed, calling transit workers “the blood and veins of the City of New York.”

Senate Democratic Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Democrat from Yonkers, told workers at the rally that her father was a transit worker, and that the union was what allowed her family to be middle class. “What you do affects millions of people,” she said."

The day was also marked by union solidarity and union pride. Enjoy the slideshow -- see it by clicking on the image above.