News
The Koch Brothers’ War on Transit
Billy Moyers & Company | By Angie Schmitt | October 3, 2014 Transit advocates around the country were transfixed by a story in Tennessee this April, when the state chapter of Americans for Prosperity made a bid to pre-emptively kill Nashville bus rapid transit. It was an especially brazen attempt by Charles and David Koch’s political…
Read MoreBaker exploits MBTA’s winter woes to push ill-conceived reform
Boston Globe | By Larry Hanley | June 15, 2015 Summer is here, but Governor Baker is still exploiting Bostonians’ frustration with last winter’s blizzard breakdown of public transit to push through an MBTA reform package that will jeopardize the service, safety, and affordability of Boston’s bus and rail service. The governor wants to…
Read MoreMarc Pacheco: Missing context to understanding ‘Pacheco Law,’ MBTA debate
Taunton Daily Gazette | By Marc R. Pacheco | June 07. 2015 I am writing to provide important context that is missing from a recent Taunton Daily Gazette Our View, titled, “Getting the T back on Track,” which deals with the Taxpayer Protection Act, sometimes referred to as the “Pacheco Law.” I am writing to provide…
Read MoreUnion: MBTA arbitration is `substitute for the strike’
State House News Service | By Andy Metzger |Thursday, May 28 If Gov. Charlie Baker succeeds in a key aspect of his MBTA reform plan he will have uprooted a unique aspect of transit workers collective bargaining rights that harks back more than a century. Unlike other public employee unions, when MBTA workers reach an…
Read MoreMBTA union vows fight over Baker’s plan for agency
Boston Globe | By David Scharfenberg | May 27, 2015 The MBTA’s largest employee union is vowing to sue the state, or petition the federal government to cut off millions of dollars in aid for the agency, if state lawmakers approve a key provision of Governor Charlie Baker’s T overhaul plan. Union officials argue the…
Read MoreTransportation Hearing This Wednesday (5/27)
Dear members, A bill filed by Gov. Charlie Baker to overhaul the MBTA is the subject of a second public hearing this week. Transportation Committee chairs Rep. William Straus and Sen. Thomas McGee will hear the bill (H 3347) this Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Tufts University’s Cohen Auditorium, which is located at 40 Talbot Avenue Medford,…
Read MoreMass. Senate OKs Fiscal Control Board For MBTA
State House News Service | By MATT MURPHY | May 22, 2015 The Senate shortly after midnight Friday morning unanimously passed a $38.1 billion budget plan for the fiscal year that begins in July after Democrats and Republicans came together over a compromise to put the MBTA under the authority of financial control board. The…
Read MoreT union raises concern about outside contractor
Commonwealth Magazine | By Bruce Mohl | May 21, 2015 THE MBTA RESTORED full service to the Orange Line in March but nevertheless shipped 24 disabled Orange Line traction motors to an outside contractor for repair. The T says it expects to receive the first of the refurbished motors back on Friday after more than…
Read MoreMBTA Union Lashes Out At Outsourcing Plan
State House News Service | By Andy Metzger | Feb. 10, 2016 BOSTON – The MBTA’s plans for a dramatic reduction in its business-side workforce through outsourcing of cash handling and fare gates generated a forceful rebuttal from transit unions at a Wednesday meeting. “A big part of this is to improve performance,” Chief Administrator Brian…
Read MoreMBTA to consider privatizing services involving 250 jobs
Boston Globe | By Nicole Dungca | Feb. 10, 2016 Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority officials on Wednesday will take up a plan backed by Governor Charlie Baker to privatize departments that maintain fare machines, count cash fares, and run marketing and retail operations, a step that could eliminate about 250 jobs in all, according to…
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