Local 100 Takes Albany for Lobby Day 2026

March 26—In a strong show of Local 100 strength, thousands of members woke before dawn Wednesday to ride buses up to our annual Lobby Day in Albany.

The morning’s program featured President John Chiarello, International President John Samuelsen and various labor allies and elected leaders giving speeches, followed by members making the rounds in the Capitol Building to tell assembly members and senators what our political priorities are—most importantly, fixing Tier 6.

“We have a new political power that was not here before” Chiarello told the crowd. “People feel something, they know there’s a change in the air because we’re a strong, fighting union.”

The program was emceed by Administrative VP Alexander Kemp, who also narrated a video about the changes in the pension tier system that have brought us to the broken system that is Tier 6.

Samuelsen told the crowd it was critical that we view management as the enemy.

“We need to make it abundantly clear that it’s absolutely us against them, against these miserable bosses at the MTA,” Samuelsen said. “They’re flush with capital money because of congestion pricing, and they’re flush with operating money because of the casinos, and yet they’re still crying poverty.”

As the pre-lobbying program wound down, Chiarello thanked the members who made the trip upstate and encouraged them to keep the energy up.

“I’m letting you know now, May 1st there’s going to be huge rally”, said Chiarello. “We’re going to show our power on Broadway, go to the house of pain, 2 Broadway.” “We’re fighting for a contract, and we need everyone to show up who showed up today.”