News
Without Pacheco Law, can we trust the MBTA to undertake privatization?
Boston Globe – OPINION | By Suzanne Bump | May 07, 2015 The “Pacheco Law” has been cited as an obstacle to the goal of a more efficient, less costly mass transit system for Boston. As the state official charged with ensuring that plans for having private companies run certain government operations meet the requirements…
Read MoreState House Rally This Monday (5/11)
Join Local 589’s executive board, members, and retirees―as well as other MBTA unions―for a rally this Monday (5/11) at 11:00 AM on the steps across the street from the Massachusetts State House (corner of Beacon and Park Street). After the rally, we ask that you visit with your state senator and state representative and urge…
Read MoreMBTA union wants to repair image
Boston Globe | By Joan Vennochi | May 3, 2015 THEY OPPOSE any changes to a state law that makes it hard for the MBTA to do business with private vendors. They agree employee absenteeism is a problem — just not as big a problem as a recent report made it sound. Other than that,…
Read MoreWhy The Globe Is Wrong About MBTA Reform
WGBH | Jim Aloisi | May 19, 2015 Monday, May 18 was one of those days when I thanked God for small favors. I read The Boston Globe’s editorial on the proposed MBTA “reforms” later in the day, thus avoiding having it spoil my breakfast and lunch. As I normally precede dinner with a libation,…
Read MorePeter Lucas: Flaws in Pacheco Law? Pacheco doesn’t think so
The Lowell Sun | Peter Lucas | May 19, 2015 How many Massachusetts politicians do you know who have a law named after them? Not many, I am sure. But one who does is state Sen. Marc Pacheco, author and champion of the “Pacheco Law,” which, from time to time, Republicans and conservatives love to…
Read MoreMass Fiscal Alliance’s Fraudulent Poll
Worcester Telegram | By Maurice Cunningham | June 24, 2015 In a June 12 As I See It: Give Baker tools to fix the T, Rick Green, chairman of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, boasts that a MFA poll shows eighty percent support for Gov. Baker’s MBTA plan. One problem: the poll is a fraud. I’ve read…
Read MoreDefining 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…
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