Once again MBTA management continues to seek privatization, like it’s a magic wand that is the only solution to achieve cost savings and improvements.

These men and women work for you, the MBTA, but you disparage them and their work in an effort to justify privatization.

We believe that public transportation systems should be kept public, not outsourced and privatized. Because it is ultimately best for the system.

Let’s look at the Commuter Rail – 13 years after we outsourced the operation, privatization has clearly not delivered the improvements we were all promised. Keolis is a glaring example of privatization gone wrong.

The MBTA should make the necessary investments needed to improve the system – not pay a private company who seeks to make a profit off of a public service.

For decades, the MBTA has failed to invest in its own system and now they are blaming the very employees who are invested and committed to the system, it isn’t right. And we believe the system will ultimately suffer as a result.

Audits have shown that it is not a perfect system, we can all agree to that. To that end, do you think our members needed a private consultant to come in and tell them that the system was broken? We have been bringing these issues to the table for years. But what these audits have also shown is that the system failures are the fault of insufficient oversight, inefficient management, and a complete lack of investment.

You have to be honest with the public. Generalizations and comparisons have been made in these reports that deny the intricacies of our system – proof that outside companies do not understand our business and what we do.

Just one example – we do fewer picks ups per route than the “industry standard.” But they aren’t comparing the MBTA to other transit systems, we don’t even know what industry they are referring to. They are neglecting to take into account that one “stop” for the MBTA means multiple machines.

When reviewing this audit, I would caution everyone to read it carefully, and read between the lines.

As a result of these audit findings, MBTA leadership took the necessary steps to remove four managers from their positions, and we are already seeing improvements in the money room operations. Now that new management is in place, things are running better – with the same team of employees in place.

On behalf of the Boston Carmen’s Union, thank you for taking the time to hear from me today.