Brothers and Sisters,

Seven members of the Executive Board were arrested this morning as they blocked the Money Room trucks from trying to leave.

President Jimmy O’Brien; Assistant Secretary Joe Cerbone; Allen Lee, Delegate, Division 1; Larry Kelly, Delegate, RTL/AFC; Patrick Hogan, Delegate, Division 3; Mike Keller, Delegate, Equipment Maintenance; and John Hunt, Delegate, Engineering Maintenance were arrested and taken to the MBTA Transit Police’s headquarters and will face charges of unlawful assembly. Vice President Peggy LaPaglia, Financial Secretary Jim Evers, and Recording Secretary John Clancy are at the ATU International Convention, or they would be facing charges this morning too.

We never wanted it to come to this, but we have tried for months to convince the MBTA to join us for constructive negotiations at the bargaining table. But under the leadership of Acting General Manager Brian Shortsleeve and Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack the MBTA has repeatedly used misleading or incomplete financial projections to pursue privatization of the MBTA’s Money Room at all costs.

Today, we took action to stop an outsourcing attempt. Nothing about this process has been transparent ―the numbers, the audits, or the decision-making. The MBTA leadership team was handed a blank check to privatize and they are doing whatever it takes to cash it. We cannot stand by while they privatize our public transportation system and turn the keys over to a private company seeking to profit from our riders’ fares and the public’s tax dollars.

The Boston Herald and many other news outlets were on hand to cover the protest. We’re sending a message to the public that privatization is wrong for Massachusetts

Today, Brian Shortsleeve expects the Fiscal and Management Control Board to vote to approve BRINKS to take over the Money Room. We crashed his press conference yesterday to fight back for our members―take a look at the coverage from WGBH,The Boston Globe, and CommonWealth Magazine.

We’re not backing down from this fight.