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 former political director to Mitt Romney’s 2002 gubernatorial campaign as well as worked for Mitt at Bain Capital.

For those who do not know, Bain Capital is a private equity firm whose modus operandi, according to one paper, “is to invest in companies, leverage them up with debt, and then sell them off for scrap, allowing Bain’s investors to walk away with huge profits while the companies in which Bain invested wound up in bankruptcy, laying off workers and reneging on benefits.”

At our first meeting with Brian, we realized he was still working from the Bain Capital playbook as he informed us of all the services he is looking to privatize. If Brian thinks he is going to ruin the MBTA like he and Bain Capital did to so many other organizations, by driving up costs, raiding the public coffers, and then selling the pieces off to the highest bidder, he is sadly mistaken. We take tremendous pride in the work we do to make the oldest public transportation system in the nation one of the best―and we are not about to let him destroy it.

We urge all members to make sure we have your current address, cell phone number, and e-mail address so we can keep you informed of the latest news and events. Make no mistake; the governor is looking to privatize the MBTA so he can enrich his supporters, as Weld did before him. This is not about making the system better. If they cared about the system, they would have invested in the system. This is about wealth distribution.

However, they cannot sell that story to our riders. Right now our customers, the riding public, just want the system fixed and so do we, but we need it fixed the right way. We need real investment in maintenance, equipment, and infrastructure―not gimmicks, shortcuts, and scapegoating.

Moving forward, we will be working closer with our union brothers and sisters as well as other advocacy groups to educate the riding public on what is really going on and what needs to be done to improve the system. One of the first rallies we need all members to attend will be held outside the Greater Boston Labor Council’s Annual Labor Day Breakfast on Monday, Sept. 7th at the Park Plaza Hotel in Boston. We are asking all members to join us at 7:30 AM.

In closing, please continue to check the website and our social media pages for the latest news and events. You can also call our new hotline for updates at 617-982-3178.

In solidarity,

Executive Board
Boston Carmen’s Union, Local 589