Posts by Local589 Admin
Defining the Pacheco law
Commonwealth Magazine | By Michael Jonas | June 26, 2015 The temperature is rising on Beacon Hill in the battle over reforms to the much maligned MBTA. The Globe‘s David Scharfenberg reports today that both sides in the T debate are turning up the heat, with the Carmen’s Union that represents MBTA workers hitting the…
Read MorePrivatization Has Been a Colossal Flop
Huffington Post | By Allen Frances, professor emeritus at Duke University | May 23, 2015 Let’s get this straight. I am a penny pincher, who hates waste and wants a lean and efficient government. But, that said, we have to face the fact that our massive privatization of what once were government functions has been…
Read MoreThe Koch Brothers’ War on Transit
Billy Moyers & Company | By Angie Schmitt | October 3, 2014 Transit advocates around the country were transfixed by a story in Tennessee this April, when the state chapter of Americans for Prosperity made a bid to pre-emptively kill Nashville bus rapid transit. It was an especially brazen attempt by Charles and David Koch’s political…
Read MoreBaker exploits MBTA’s winter woes to push ill-conceived reform
Boston Globe | By Larry Hanley | June 15, 2015 Summer is here, but Governor Baker is still exploiting Bostonians’ frustration with last winter’s blizzard breakdown of public transit to push through an MBTA reform package that will jeopardize the service, safety, and affordability of Boston’s bus and rail service. The governor wants to…
Read MoreVolunteers Needed for Phone Banks!
Dear brothers and sisters, As you know, our rights, our livelihoods, and our families are under attack with current efforts to privatize the MBTA. However, let us be clear, this is not only an attack on Local 589―it is an attack on the labor movement itself! In response, Local 589’s executive board has organized phone…
Read MoreMarc Pacheco: Missing context to understanding ‘Pacheco Law,’ MBTA debate
Taunton Daily Gazette | By Marc R. Pacheco | June 07. 2015 I am writing to provide important context that is missing from a recent Taunton Daily Gazette Our View, titled, “Getting the T back on Track,” which deals with the Taxpayer Protection Act, sometimes referred to as the “Pacheco Law.” I am writing to provide…
Read MoreUnion: MBTA arbitration is `substitute for the strike’
State House News Service | By Andy Metzger |Thursday, May 28 If Gov. Charlie Baker succeeds in a key aspect of his MBTA reform plan he will have uprooted a unique aspect of transit workers collective bargaining rights that harks back more than a century. Unlike other public employee unions, when MBTA workers reach an…
Read MoreHealth & Welfare Trust Fund Forms Due June 1st
If you have not done so already, please make sure to fill out and fax the documents you received in the mail for joining the Health & Welfare Trust Fund and Davis Vision Program to the following number: (617) 222-1694. The deadline is June 1st. If you have not received anything, please call the MBTA’s…
Read MoreMBTA union vows fight over Baker’s plan for agency
Boston Globe | By David Scharfenberg | May 27, 2015 The MBTA’s largest employee union is vowing to sue the state, or petition the federal government to cut off millions of dollars in aid for the agency, if state lawmakers approve a key provision of Governor Charlie Baker’s T overhaul plan. Union officials argue the…
Read MoreTransportation Hearing This Wednesday (5/27)
Dear members, A bill filed by Gov. Charlie Baker to overhaul the MBTA is the subject of a second public hearing this week. Transportation Committee chairs Rep. William Straus and Sen. Thomas McGee will hear the bill (H 3347) this Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Tufts University’s Cohen Auditorium, which is located at 40 Talbot Avenue Medford,…
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