Major Victories in State Budget For Local 100 Pension Reform, Overtime Calculation Extensions, and Protection Against Spitting Incidents!

As the Albany budget dust settles, TWU Local 100 can claim significant victories on three fronts -- a more favorable calculation for Tier 6 retirement benefits, a carry-over of overtime pension calculation benefits from the COVID-19 years, and a breakthrough in raising penalties for perpetrators in spitting incidents on NYCT workers.

These accomplishments are due to persistent engagement by our membership -- who showed up in Lobby Day in unprecedented numbers -- along with a full-court press by union leaders and staff, said President Richard Davis. Davis also credited the win to a new initiative, organized by our Tier 6 Reform Committee Chair and Co-Chair, that brought a large group of transit workers -- Tier 6 Ambassadors -- to the State Capitol as the budget was being finalized.

PAC Director Sharase DeBouse also commended all of the members who have been diligently contributing to the Union’s COPE fund, saying that without this strong financial base, these victories would not have been possible.

In what the New York State Central Labor Council is calling ‘the most significant improvement for our public servants in 20 years,” the legislature has changed the calculation of “Final Average Salary” in Tier 6 to a high 3 years, instead of a high five. This will increase pensions on retirement for all Tier 6 members.

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Another bill favoring transit workers -- the Public Protection Bill -- continues an exclusion of overtime payments when calculating an employee’s pension contribution. This exclusion -- benefiting our members -- was set to expire. The legislature kept it in force.

Another victory of particular import is that spitting on a transit worker -- a disgusting form of assault, but one which did not rise to the level of a crime in the past -- will now become a Class A Misdemeanor. For the first time, spitting on a transit worker will be a crime that is bail-eligible -- meaning that a judge will now have the power to take such a perpetrator off the street pending court hearings.

We know there is more to be done -- including fixing the overtime cap. There are still battles ahead -- but if we continue to fight the way we’ve been fighting in 2024 we will prevail and remove the other impediments to equality that still exist.

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