Thousands Throng Albany on Lobby Day
President Richard Davis, with Director of Operations Tony Utano and Secretary-Treasurer John V. Chiarello went first, taking Monday to lobby key politicians in person. Led by Political Action Director Sharase DeBouse, the leadership team visited key players including Comptroller Tom DiNapoli (who expressed his support for Fixing Tier 6), Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (on our amendment to the Taylor Law), Transportation Chair William Magnarelli (on the OPTO Bill), and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (on the Taylor Law and the overtime cap for Tier 6), among others.
MARCH 28 — As MTA budget talks went down to the wire, over two thousand transit workers descended on Albany with our priorities in hand. We want to see the Assembly and Senate pass Governor Hochul’s MTA budget ask, but there’s a lot more legislators have to do to win our continued support.
President Richard Davis, with Director of Operations Tony Utano and Secretary-Treasurer John V. Chiarello went first, taking Monday to lobby key politicians in person. Led by Political Action Director Sharase DeBouse, the leadership team visited key players including Comptroller Tom DiNapoli (who expressed his support for Fixing Tier 6), Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (on our amendment to the Taylor Law), Transportation Chair William Magnarelli (on the OPTO Bill), and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (on the Taylor Law and the overtime cap for Tier 6), among others.
Our union leaders made the point that the MTA receives massive funding from the State – but accountability of proper use of those funds is often missing, allowing abuse by contractors and consultants who rake in millions while many jobs that are farmed out could be done better and cheaper in-house.
Then on Tuesday, we opened the floodgates as 2,000 transit workers from every Department and Division descended on the State house, first to hear from the politicians we support, then to lobby their individual legislators in the hallways and lobbies of the Capitol.
The packed audience in the Egg Convention Center heard from Comptroller DiNapoli, Assembly members Rodneyse Bichotte, Monique Waterman, Al Taylor, Latoya Joyner, and Speaker Carl Heastie. On the Senate side, we heard from Jamaal Bailey, John Liu, Kevin Parker, Zelnor Myrie, Leroy Comrie, and Jessica Ramos. Ramos and Joyner particularly impressed the crowd with their full-throated support of S5785/AB6031, which would amend the New York State Taylor Law to give transit workers statewide the right to strike, including TWU Local 100 alongside other unions (including those representing the LIRR and Metro North), who currently enjoy that right.
Senator Ramos told the crowd in part: “In 2005 I was in college when I got to see so many Local 100 members walk off the job, courageously violating the law to do the right thing – to leverage their power for a better contract. That’s what union members do. That’s what a good union does. It organizes its worker power to ensure that the bosses at the bargaining table hear very damn word. So when John, Tony, and Rich came to me, I said, Hell yeah – I’m going to introduce that bill.
“This is about equality. This is about having the possibility of calling for a strike when you know the bosses at the MTA aren’t treating you right, when you know that you’re not getting the wages, benefits, and protections you need on the job.”
She urged members to tell their legislators how hard they had to work during the pandemic and how important the Taylor Law bill is.
Following the auditorium program, in over 100 legislative visits, union members pressed our legislative agenda, also asking many legislators to support hazard pay for transit workers.
We also reintroduced a bill, carried by Michael Benedetto in the Assembly and Shelley Mayer in the Senate, that would provide for due process disciplinary rights for our members in the School Bus Division, who right now are at the mercy of local school board members who can take them out of service without recourse.
As we continue to build union power in Albany, PAC Director Sharase DeBouse makes one thing clear: None of this would be happening without the Committee on Political Education (COPE) dollars our members provide.
COPE money is used to not only for political contributions to politicians to support us – it is also used to educate members of the legislature on the reasons why they should support our legislative priorities.
“When we see people vote against our issues, it’s because they were not educated,” she said. “We were able, for example, to get the Assault bill passed in both houses last session because we used COPE money to educate the politicians.”
Using COPE to educate legislators on our issues led to our Tier VI bill passing in both houses in 2018. Our efforts also led to amendments to our assault bill legislation and Tier VI amendments passing in 2020 and 2021. Both of these bills were signed into law by Gov. Hochul. Using our COPE funds we are pressing for action on our Tier VI bill that would remove the current overtime cap.
More photos from Lobby Day below:
