Wednesday night, members of of the executive board along with Local 589 members, members of other MBTA unions, various community groups, and T riders joined together outside South Station, Downtown Crossing, and Park Street T stations to educate riders about the dangers of privatization. Over 10,000 pamphlets were handed out to riders to let them know about the following routes that Gov. Baker seeks to privatize: #5, #18, #52, #68, #70A, #99, #201, #202, #210, #212, #351, #439, #451, #465, #325, #326, #352, #502, #504, #505 and night owl routes.

‘We got a very positive reception from T riders,” said Jimmy O’Brien, Local 589’s president. “T riders support what we are doing and see through Baker’s plan to steal our public transportation system and hand it over to his cronies and rich contributors. Across the country, privatization has led to increases in fares and drastic cuts to service. T riders know this and are prepared to fight for the real issue – lack of funding that has led a backlog of repairs costing over 7 billion dollars . We always hear ‘reform before revenue.’ After years of gross neglect, it’s time to invest in the T.”