State Senator Tom McGee, State Senator Karen Spilka, and Local 589’s John Lee.

Senator Tom McGee, Chairman of the Joint Committee on Transportation, credited Local 589’s President John Lee along with the other ATU Locals, riders, Community Labor United, and all the other coalition partners for delivering $600 million in transportation funding, including $115 million for the MBTA.

Senator McGee, speaking at the MBTA Union Coalition meeting on September 6th, said without the push from Local 589, T riders and other community groups working under the Carmen’s statewide coalition, the Legislature would never have passed the bill to fund MBTA operations and told President / Business Agent John Lee that Local 589’s role was critical to delivering the financial resources that stopped T service cuts and layoffs.

U.S Congressman Bill Keating attended the meeting and discussed federal transit funding options and the Boston Carmen’s Union’s proposal to build a bus and train facility in Massachusetts. Under the proposal a new repair facility built in Massachusetts would keep taxpayer dollars in the state and create new jobs. A state-of-the-art repair facility would mean MBTA equipment would be repaired in-house by T workers and would also bring additional repair work from other states to Massachusetts.

State Senator Karen Spilka, who filed a bill to review the building of a Massachusetts MBTA repair facility, told the group it only made sense to keep jobs in Massachusetts and utilize skilled MBTA workers instead of shipping buses and trolleys to other states for repairs.

State Senator John Keenan, House Majority Leader Ron Mariano and State Representative Rhonda Nyman also attended the meeting to learn details of the proposal and to thank Local 589 for all the work at the State House on transit funding.

Click here to see photos from the meeting.