One day after mechanics rallied in front of the MBTA’s Lynn maintenance facility to fight an effort to privatize their jobs, union and management have agreed to negotiate.
Michael Vartabedian, area director of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which represents 400 machinists in Lynn, said the two sides will meet on Thursday.
At issue is Gov. Charlie Baker’s plan to privatize repair work for the T’s buses at its Lynn, Quincy, and Boston facilities.
Vartabedian said if past negotiations are any indication, union workers will be left out in the cold.
“I don’t want to torpedo it since the T says they are willing to negotiate and we will,” he said. “But if it follows the pattern they’re pursuing, there will be no negotiation on their side. We will meet for an hour or so and nothing will be discussed.”
The Baker administration has the green light to shift work to the private sector, where the T argues costs will be lower. In 2015, the Legislature cleared the way for greater privatization of T services. Lawmakers approved a three-year suspension of the Pacheco Law, the measure which requires state agencies to prove that outsourcing would save money, before they privatize positions.
Sen. Marc Pacheco (D-Taunton) championed the measure in 1993, after the state privatized three dozen operations in three years. The plan became law over former Gov. William Weld’s veto. It imposes a strict series of tests before a service can be privatized. The conservative Pioneer Institute says the law has cost taxpayers $450 million in savings in the last decade.
Last year, the T’s Fiscal and Management Control Board approved a two-year, $7.7 million contract to Brink’s Inc. to perform cash collection operations that had previously been handled by the T. The transit agency said the move is expected to reduce spending for cash processing by more than half, saving taxpayers at least $8 million a year.
Of the 16 public regional transit agencies in Massachusetts, only one, the MBTA, does not outsource its bus maintenance work. The T said it can cut the hourly worker compensation from a base rate of $36.80, plus additional benefits costs, to $18 per hour, by privatizing the Lynn garage.
Bus mechanics say they have voluntarily deferred a 2.5 percent raise scheduled for July 1 and are willing to discuss other concessions.
Joe Pesaturo, a spokesman for acting MBTA Interim General Manager Steve Poftak, said in an email he had “no interest in conducting negotiations in the media.”
On Monday, union members were joined by U.S. Sen. Edward Markey (D), state Sen. Thomas M. McGee (D-Lynn), and state Reps. Brendan Crighton (D-Lynn) and Daniel Cahill (D-Lynn).
Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy said she supports the Baker administration.
“I can’t fault the governor for trying to cut costs,” she said.
On Tuesday, the T named former General Electric executive Luis Manuel Ramirez as its new general manager. At $320,000 a year, he is scheduled to take the high profile job next month.
