City sanitation workers push pension reform

Sanitation workers hired after April 2012 are on a modified Tier 3 pension plan that requires them to work for 22 years before they can retire and that reduces pension benefits by a dollar amount equal to 50 percent of their Social Security benefits once they reach age 62.  

Kara McCurdy/ Mayoral Photography Office

Dozens of New York’s Strongest gathered on the steps of City Hall Thursday afternoon to pressure state lawmakers, including Governor Kathy Hochul, to pass legislation that would improve the pensions of thousands of New York City sanitation workers. The leadership of Teamsters Local 831, the Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association, joined with allies in the City Council to push two bills weaving their way through the State Senate that would, union leaders say, correct a wrong enshrined into the modified Tier 3 pension plan of every sanitation worker hired after April 2012.  

One bill, S7414, would allow city sanitation workers in the modified Tier 3 plan to retire after 20 years on the job, lowering the limit by two years. The second, S4667A, would reverse a policy that reduces retired sanitation workers’ pension benefits by a dollar amount equal to 50 percent of their Social Security benefits once they reach age 62.  

Dennis Schock, the president of Local 831, said in an interview on Thursday that the law changes were a matter of fairness for his uniformed members who will see their pensions reduced by the social security offset “when they need the money the most.” More than 5,500 of the around 7,000 active sanitation workers in the city are covered by the Tier 3 plan, he said, and many will retire before 62 and then see their pensions cut after years of it already being “eaten away” by inflation. 

Other uniformed workers in the NYPD and FDNY hired after April 2012 can retire with their full pension after just 20 years, and don’t have the social security offset, he pointed out. "We need to get rid of the social security offset,” he said. "It was legally passed but I thought it was a miscarriage of justice.” 

State Senator Robert Jackson, the chair of the committee of civil service and pensions and sponsor of both bills, said in a statement that sanitation workers' dignity in labor “must be matched by dignity in retirement.” 

“Our sanitation workers have carried this city through storms, through crisis and through the quiet, daily work that keeps New York standing,” he said. “Yet the law has asked more of some than others—stretching years and shrinking benefits, as if fairness could be negotiated downward. Senate Bills S7414 and S4667A correct that wrong. They restore what should have never been taken: equity, respect, and a retirement earned through service—not sacrifice beyond reason. This is not just about pensions. It is about justice written into law, and a promise kept to those who have always kept theirs.” 

The pension reforms being pushed by Local 831 are among many changes that unions across the state are hoping to make to the retirement plans for workers hired after April 2012.  Peter Meringolo, chair of the New York State Public Employee Conference, said that pension reform, for both uniformed and non-uniformed employees, is key for recruitment and retention of workers for the future.

"We need to get something done for tier equity," said Meringolo, adding he supports Local 831's push for their pension reform.

Governor Kathy Hochul has publicly backed costly Tier 6 pension reforms being pushed by a coalition of other unions across the state. She has yet to name specific reforms she hopes to pass in the state budget, whether that is lowering the retirement age — as teachers' unions have pushed — decreasing contributions that active workers make to their pensions — which District Council 37 has pushed — or the change to sanitation workers modified Tier 3 pensions. 

“Governor Hochul is proud to support New York's state and municipal employees and has enacted significant reforms to enhance the retirement benefits for Tier 6 members,” a spokesperson for Hochul said in a statement on Jackson’s two bills. “Governor Hochul will review any bill that passes both houses of the legislature.” 

Schock sees the reforms as a matter of fairness for his members, who he feels deserve the same pension benefits as other uniformed city workers. 

“You may never need a cop, you may never need a fireman, but you're going to need a sanitation worker," the union president said. "Every day we're out there. Every weather we're doing our jobs, sweltering heat, you name it, we’re out there, freezing cold, blizzard conditions, we're out there."