MBTA Mechanics Bring Fight Over Privatization To The Public With Internet Campaign

New MBTA general manager Luis Ramirez was greeted to his first meeting of the agency's oversight board by hundreds of his new employees chanting slogans against T managers and plans to privatize services.

The labor union representing the MBTA's bus mechanics, Local 264, used the rally outside the MassDOT offices to launch a new advertising campaign opposing the outsourcing of the system's bus maintenance garages and targeting the private companies that could be interested in taking over the work.

Local 264 business manager Mike Vartabedian says the union has offered to cut costs by $29 million dollars, but T managers are ignoring that offer and are determined to outsource the jobs to companies the state has already had disappointing contracts with.

"So we're going to go back to them? That's what we're going to do? We're going to get rid of the best mechanics in the country and gamble with the taxpayers and the safety of the riders," Vartabedian said.

Read more: http://news.wgbh.org/2017/09/18/politics-government/mbta-mechanics-bring-fight-over-privatization-public-internet