UNRUFFLED BY MOUNTING UNION ANGER, the MBTA’s oversight board on Thursday swiftly approved a contract to dismantle the transit agency’s cash collection and money counting operations and turn the work over to a private vendor.
The $3.6 million annual contract with Brink’s Inc. will mean all the T employees who work in the agency’s money room will lose their positions over the next four months, but officials said all of them will be allowed to take jobs driving buses. T officials say the Brink’s contract will save the agency about $5.4 million a year.
The Boston Carmen’s Union, which represents the workers in the money room, has vowed to fight the contract award, possibly in court. The seven members of the union’s executive board were all arrested Thursday morning and charged with unlawful assembly for trying to block access to the money-counting facility in Charlestown.
The vote by the Fiscal Management and Control Board was 4-0. The fifth member, union representative Brian Lang, did not attend the meeting but left word that he would have voted against the contract. State Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack sat in on the meeting, but said nothing during debate on the contract. The vote was taken with heavy security at the entrances to the board room and with officials checking any bags brought into the room.
The contract is the first time the MBTA has taken advantage of a 2015 law that grants the transit agency a three-year exemption from a statute restricting privatization efforts. T officials said the money room was an obvious target for privatization because its costs are high and its efficiency is low. Counting money is also a function outside the T’s core competency of transporting passengers, they said.
Gov. Charlie Baker made a similar argument at the State House. “I think the T should focus on the things it needs to focus on, which is moving people from one place to another so they can go to work or go to the store or go to school,” he said. “In this particular case, we’ll have more people driving buses as a result of this initiative, not less. Nobody is going to lose an opportunity to work at the T as a result of this.”
But T officials made clear that they intend to explore privatization of many other T operations, including work transporting passengers. They are looking at privatization of warehouse services, maintenance work, and operations. Brian Shortsleeve, the T’s acting general manager and chief administrator, said the wage structure at the T also needs to be reviewed.
Shortsleeve said privatization is one of the chief ways in which the agency will seek to balance its operating budget, a task that he said has become more difficult this year as sales tax revenues have lagged. Shortsleeve said the T’s operating deficit has risen to $126 million, in part because the revenue the T collects from the state sales tax is expected to come in $35 million less than expected. Commuter rail expenses are also $11 million higher, he said.
The Legislature typically gives the T a $186 million annual appropriation, but Shortsleeve said that money cannot be counted on. He said the T is statutorily required to balance its budget.
Several union officials testified before the vote, taking aim at Shortsleeve and Baker for failing to invest in the T and eliminating jobs. “Charlie Baker isn’t fixing the T. He’s gutting it,” said AFL-CIO President Steven Tolman. “Keep the public in public transit,” said Lou Antonellis, president of IBEW Local 103.
During their brief deliberations, the board members didn’t discuss any of the union concerns, instead focusing on how the new contract would work. The discussion led to one change in the proposal, that the $3.6 million be the maximum amount that could be awarded under the contract.
James O’Brien, the president of the Carmen’s Union and one of those arrested on Thursday, issued a statement after the board’s vote condemning its “rush to privatization.” He added: “Even though this contract is moving forward, we’re not going to back down from this fight to stop privatization.”
Roxanna Rivera, a vice president at SEIU 32BJ, urged the board to rebid the T’s contract with two cleaning firms. She said the T’s decision to implement the cleaning contract as it was originally written has prompted the companies to scale back the hours of workers. She said 91 workers have seen their hours cut, and half have lost their health care coverage as a result.
T officials have promised to investigate the workers’ loss of health care, but they have made no commitment to rebidding the contract.
I get emotionally drained every time I read about the MBTA…every single time.