News
Chronicle Segment Includes Local 589 Members
On Tuesday, Chronicle on WCVB Channel 5 did a segment on the largely unseen workforce that keeps things moving. Of course, you could do a segment about keeping things moving without talking about the members of Local 589. In this segment, they focus on our hard-working members who work to maintain the system in the wee…
Read MoreO’Brien Sets Record Straight on Overtime
In a recent article in the Boston Globe (MBTA overtime spending spiked last year), President Jimmy O’Brien set the record straight that the surge in overtime is do to understaffing. Below is his quote from the article. Well, there’s the same amount of work to be done to run and maintain the buses and the…
Read MorePanel’s Proposed MBTA Reforms
Dear brothers and sisters, Thank you to the over 600 members that attended yesterday’s monthly union meetings to discuss the proposed reforms to the MBTA, including the elimination of the Taxpayer Protection Act (“Pacheco Law”). At the union meetings were Local 589’s media consultant, Steve Crawford, and lobbyist, Mike Morris. Steve gave an update on actions…
Read MoreBoston man arrested for spitting at bus driver, punching bus window
Oct 17, 2012 – By Melissa M. Werthmann – Boston Globe Boston police arrested a man Tuesday evening after he spit on a bus driver and shattered the window on the front passenger-side door of the bus, the MBTA said. The driver picked up the man near the intersection of Blue Hill Avenue and Dudley Street,…
Read MoreHouse set to approve $49m in aid for MBTA
Boston Globe | By Eric Moskowitz | June 12, 2012 The House is poised to vote Wednesday on an emergency funding package for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, with key lawmakers saying they expect to get the measure to Governor Deval Patrick’s desk by June 30. The plan to send $49 million in state aid…
Read MoreBanking on kindness at the MBTA
Boston Globe | By Brian McGrory | August 01, 2012 If bad news were money, we’d all be millionaires these days. The presidential candidates are basically trying to scratch each other’s eyes out. Nothing will change after the Colorado massacre. The world economy is dangling by a thread. Republicans and Democrats can’t agree on the…
Read MoreMBTA ridership reaches new heights
BOSTON (AP) — There were more than 400 million individual rides on the MBTA during the last fiscal year for the first time in transit agency history. The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority announced Tuesday that average weekday ridership for the fiscal year that ended June 30 grew by 5.7 percent over the previous year.…
Read MoreATU Mass. Legislative Conference
This past Wednesday July 18, 2012, Boston Carmen’s Union, Local 589 President John Lee and members of the Executive Board joined with other Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Locals as part of the Mass. Legislative Conference. The purpose of …the meeting was to discuss issues pertaining to mass transit (i.e., the transportation bond bill, funding, debt,…
Read MoreMBTA Control Board proposal shot down
22News | Tuesday, 19 June 2012 | By Christine Lee BOSTON, Mass. (WWLP) – The Senate shot down a proposal Tuesday that would create a Springfield-like Control Board to take over financial management of Boston’s transit authority, the MBTA. Senator Gale Candaras (D-Wilbraham) announced the amendment as the Senate debated a $51 million dollar bailout…
Read MoreMass. Senate OK’s $49m MBTA bailout
Boston Globe | June 20, 2012 | By Eric Moskowitz The state Senate agreed Tuesday to tap $49 million from a little-known state surplus to help the MBTA close its deficit for the coming year, avoiding steeper fare increases and wider service cuts than those scheduled for July 1. The plan, approved by a 26-9…
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