Dear brothers and sisters, Our rally to keep “public” transportation “public” will start at 7:00 a.m. and take place on Lincoln Square Park at the intersection of Park Plaza and Elliot Street, which is adjacent to the Park Plaza Hotel. Click on the following link for directions: https://goo.gl/maps/uNo2w. Shirts and signs will be available at…
Boston Globe | By Sara DiNatale and Steve Annear | August 26, 2015 A woman gets up briskly and calls to a young girl, presumably her daughter, to get off an MBTA bus parked on Warren Street. Just before the woman steps off the bus, she rips the cover off a plastic cup and tosses…
StreetBlogsUSA | By Angie Schmitt | Thursday, August 20, 2015 Boston’s MBTA has been having a tough year. Following a disastrous winter season marked by extreme weather and service disruptions, the agency has been inundated with charges of mismanagement. While the MBTA has its flaws, the charges against it don’t stem from a good government campaign so much as…
State House News Service | By Andy Metzger | August 20, 2015 The MBTA plans to test the appetite among private bus companies to provide service on all of the express bus routes, the lesser-traveled routes in Boston and the suburbs and late night service. All 93 buses and their 65 drivers that would be…
Boston Globe | By Nicole Dungca | August 20, 2015 The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is exploring the privatization of more than two dozen bus routes, a move that the president of the T’s largest union says amounts to a “betrayal” from Governor Charlie Baker’s administration. James O’Brien, the president of the Boston Carmen’s Union, said…
Dear brothers and sisters, As you may have heard, last night’s regular meeting of the membership was standing room only (click here to see more photos). President O’Brien went over the recent legislative and privatization update, and then informed the membership of a meeting with the new MBTA chief administrator, Brian Shortsleeve, who is a…
Dear members, Effective July 7, 2015, Governor Baker signed a $38 billion dollar budget in law, which included the relaxation of the Taxpayer Protection Act (TPA), otherwise known as the Pacheco Law, for three years. For those who were not able to attend our most recent membership meeting on Thursday, July 21, 2015, below is…
Boston Globe | By Sarah Roberts | August 12, 2015 Quick thinking and bold action were all in a day’s work for one MBTA bus driver who steered his bus into a car to slow it down and call for help when he saw that the driver was unconscious, MBTA Transit Police said. Paul Healy, 58,…
WBZ-TV | By Julie Loncich | July 17, 2015 BOSTON (CBS) – Four neighborhood kids got the thrill of their summer, thanks to a MBTA bus driver and his willing passengers. John Lohan was in mid-route on Centre Street in West Roxbury Thursday when he decided to stop. “I said if anyone is in a…
Boston Globe | By Jim O’Sullivan | July 17, 2015 AFL-CIO President Steven Tolman spoke at an MBTA union workers rally at the State House in May. Labor unions, stung by legislative maneuvering to ease privatization at the MBTA, are targeting top House Democrats, meeting privately to strategize, and discussing the possibility of running more pro-union candidates…
COFAR Blog | By David Kassel | July 13, 2015 In what has been widely viewed as a setback for state employee unions in Massachusetts, state legislators last week approved a state budget for Fiscal Year 2016 that includes a provision freezing the Pacheco Law for three years with regard to the MBTA. The Pioneer Institute apparently…
WBZ-TV | By Jim Armstrong | July 9, 2015 Catrina Mitchell has been a Green Line trolley operator for seven years — since she was just 21 years old. It can get chaotic. “I have to be the eyes of myself, the cars, the bikes, and the buses because we are all on the road at the…
Yesterday, the Massachusetts legislature did a great disservice to working families, T riders, and taxpayers across the Commonwealth with the suspension of the Taxpayer Protection Act (or Pacheco Law) for the next three years. The goal of the Taxpayer Protection Act (or Pacheco Law) was to protect the Commonwealth from the waste, fraud, and abuse…
Watch the video below as U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren defends the Taxpayer Protection Act (Pacheco Law) at a Banking Committee hearing. The following is an excerpt from her remarks: “I think it’s clear we need to address our long term transportation funding issues but in a manner that provides the same quality of service and…