News
New Transportation Poll
According to a new poll by MassINC Polling Group, commuters are feeling the effects of the transportation system’s problems in very personal ways. For a large portion of those with the longest commutes, the frustration of being stuck on the roads or transit has led them to consider changing jobs, or leaving the region altogether.…
Read MoreInterview with Marcus Taylor, Local 589’s New Assistant Secretary
Last Tuesday, our union brother Marcus Taylor was sworn in by President O’Brien as Local 589’s new assistant secretary. Recently, we had the opportunity to sit down with Marcus for a quick interview. Below are the five questions we asked him and his answers. 1) Where are you from and how did you get interested…
Read MoreIn The News
An article in Commonwealth Magazine (“MBTA pension costs rising at fast pace”) says the MBTA oversight board raised concerns that pension costs at the transit agency are spiraling out of control, and called on unions and management to come to some accord to rein in spending. In the article, President Jimmy O’Brien said the transit authority…
Read MoreChronicle Segment Includes Local 589 Members
On Tuesday, Chronicle on WCVB Channel 5 did a segment on the largely unseen workforce that keeps things moving. Of course, you could do a segment about keeping things moving without talking about the members of Local 589. In this segment, they focus on our hard-working members who work to maintain the system in the wee…
Read MoreO’Brien Sets Record Straight on Overtime
In a recent article in the Boston Globe (MBTA overtime spending spiked last year), President Jimmy O’Brien set the record straight that the surge in overtime is do to understaffing. Below is his quote from the article. Well, there’s the same amount of work to be done to run and maintain the buses and the…
Read MorePanel’s Proposed MBTA Reforms
Dear brothers and sisters, Thank you to the over 600 members that attended yesterday’s monthly union meetings to discuss the proposed reforms to the MBTA, including the elimination of the Taxpayer Protection Act (“Pacheco Law”). At the union meetings were Local 589’s media consultant, Steve Crawford, and lobbyist, Mike Morris. Steve gave an update on actions…
Read MoreBoston man arrested for spitting at bus driver, punching bus window
Oct 17, 2012 – By Melissa M. Werthmann – Boston Globe Boston police arrested a man Tuesday evening after he spit on a bus driver and shattered the window on the front passenger-side door of the bus, the MBTA said. The driver picked up the man near the intersection of Blue Hill Avenue and Dudley Street,…
Read MoreHouse set to approve $49m in aid for MBTA
Boston Globe | By Eric Moskowitz | June 12, 2012 The House is poised to vote Wednesday on an emergency funding package for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, with key lawmakers saying they expect to get the measure to Governor Deval Patrick’s desk by June 30. The plan to send $49 million in state aid…
Read MoreBanking on kindness at the MBTA
Boston Globe | By Brian McGrory | August 01, 2012 If bad news were money, we’d all be millionaires these days. The presidential candidates are basically trying to scratch each other’s eyes out. Nothing will change after the Colorado massacre. The world economy is dangling by a thread. Republicans and Democrats can’t agree on the…
Read MoreMBTA ridership reaches new heights
BOSTON (AP) — There were more than 400 million individual rides on the MBTA during the last fiscal year for the first time in transit agency history. The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority announced Tuesday that average weekday ridership for the fiscal year that ended June 30 grew by 5.7 percent over the previous year.…
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