The Boston Globe | By Adam Vaccaro | September 6, 2016

A report issued by the MBTA’s oversight board to the state legislature last week suggested that the transit agency could privatize bus operations and maintenance work, prompting a rebuke from a board member with labor ties on the very same page of the report.

Brian Lang, who is a labor leader as president of the hotel and restaurant worker union UNITE HERE Local 26, said in an interview that he draws a stark line between privatizing corporate functions and contracting out the T’s most central services.

“My position is that the core functions of the transportation system are best done in-house. We have much more control and we should exercise that control,” he said. “It’s driven from a place that, with a publicly run operation that’s run efficiently and done in the best interest of the public, we’re better off than having the profit-driven entity running what’s called the public service,” he added.

“This report continues to use the same flawed logic that has shaped the MBTA reform debate for months — that outsourcing will somehow fix decades of neglect, woefully insufficient investment and a lack of leadership. It won’t,” Jim O’Brien, the president of the union, said. “The hardworking men and women who keep the system running are being unfairly blamed for years of mismanagement.”

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