Labor is right to note that privatization won’t solve T’s woes

September 28, 2015

IMG_2767The following letter written by President James O’Brien to the editor of the Boston Globe appeared in today’s paper:

LETTERS

Labor is right to note that privatization won’t solve T’s woes

September 28, 2015

In Joan Vennochi’s Sept. 13 column (“Labor leaders’ hot rhetoric has grown cold”), organized labor is criticized for attacking the Pioneer Institute when it should be commended. Notwithstanding Vennochi’s skepticism, we do see Pioneer Institute as a right-wing think tank, with funding, in part, by David Koch and the Walton Family Foundation, and whose research is designed to eradicate rights and wages for working families.

Despite years of underinvestment in the MBTA and two back-to-back blizzards, the institute seems intent on blaming front-line T employees, instead of T leadership, for this past winter’s shutdown.

The shutdown was a nightmare for T riders and workers. However, it seems that Governor Baker and the Pioneer Institute see it as an opportunity to privatize our public transportation system.

The last time this was tried, state watchdogs and members of the media stopped Governor William Weld’s perilous push to privatize as many state services as he could, after patronage flourished.

Let’s stop privatization again before it’s too late.

James O’Brien
President
Local 589
Boston Carmen’s Union

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