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MBTA considering outsourcing services


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#1 CNJRoss

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Posted 17 February 2016 - 06:08 AM

The Boston Globe, 2/11:
 

Labor leaders, workers urge MBTA not to privatize services

 

Labor leaders decried a plan to contract out some MBTA services at a Wednesday transportation meeting.

 

At the urging of Gov. Charlie Baker, and against protests from labor unions, the legislature last year granted the T the right to freely contract services without facing a state review of the plan. The agency is now considering privatizing several administrative services, including maintenance of fare collection machines and money counting services, to save money as it stares down a projected $242 million budget gap next year.

 

Private contractors would not be as trustworthy handling money as longtime T employees, argued Jim O’Brien, the head of the T’s Carmen’s Union, which represents thousands of T employees including 77 who count money.  .  .  .

 

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#2 CNJRoss

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Posted 29 June 2016 - 12:22 AM

Boston.com, 6/28:
 

MBTA union willing to cut new workers’ pay if management limits privatization

 

The largest labor union representing MBTA workers wants to make a deal.

 

The 4,100-employee Boston Carmen’s Union says it’s willing to cut wages for new employees if it means the T will limit privatizing jobs done by members.

 

Union officials presented the proposed deal at a Monday meeting of the T’s governing board, saying it would save $24 million for the agency over four years. The proposal would extend the Carmen’s current contract with the T two years, to 2020.

 

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#3 CNJRoss

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Posted 02 July 2016 - 09:56 PM

The Boston Globe, 6/30:
 

MBTA takes first major step toward privatization

 

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s warehouse operations could be run by a private company by October, as T officials take a major step toward outsourcing a part of the agency.

 

MBTA officials on Thursday released a request for proposals from outside firms for the operations of its warehouse, which T executives have blasted for being inefficient and dysfunctional.

 

The move is already prompting fierce opposition — and a request for arbitration — from the agency’s largest labor union, whose members could lose jobs.  .  .  .

 

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#4 CNJRoss

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Posted 05 October 2016 - 07:48 PM

The Boston Globe, 10/5:
 

Union promises fight as MBTA moves to privatize cash-counting jobs

 

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is poised to privatize dozens of jobs in its cash-counting department, which would mark Governor Charlie Baker’s first major move to outsource positions in the transit system.

 

Acting general manager Brian Shortsleeve said he will recommend Thursday that the MBTA’s board award a five-year, $18.7 million contract to Brink’s, a national cash-collection and security company headquartered in Virginia. Officials say the deal could save as much as $8.6 million in the first year.

 

“We’re confident we’ll not only save money, but have a better level of service,” Shortsleeve said Wednesday at a news briefing.

 

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#5 CNJRoss

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Posted 10 October 2016 - 01:17 PM

Progressive Railroading, 10/10:
 

 

MBTA fiscal control board taps outside firm for cash collection

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's (MBTA) Fiscal and Management Control Board late last week awarded a two-year, $7.7 million to Brink's Inc. to perform cash collection operations for the agency.

The move is expected to save the agency at least $8 million a year, Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) officials said in a press release. The MBTA previously handled cash collection operations internally.

The agency also will save another $1 million that would have gone toward upgrading its "money room" in Boston's Charlestown neighborhood.

 

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#6 CNJRoss

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Posted 13 October 2016 - 04:27 PM

State House News Service via Telegram & Gazette, Worcester, MA  10/12:
 

Protesters rail against MBTA privatization plan

 

BOSTON - Filling the air outside Faneuil Hall on Wednesday with charged rhetoric about corporations profiting off government work, union officials and elected Democrats railed against privatization at the MBTA without charting a clear course for stopping those moves anytime soon

 

"It's a systematic beat-down of the middle class," said Sen. John Keenan, a Quincy Democrat. "That's what it is. There's no secret to it. For corporate America it's become more important to pay a dividend than to pay a fair wage."

 

There are few options to address privatization legislatively before the next session starts in January.

 

"There are things we can still do about it. Even this year," said Senate President Pro Tem Marc Pacheco, a Taunton Democrat, suggesting the rare step of seeking to call lawmakers back to the State House for a special session. He said, "This is extremely unfair what is taking place right now."

 

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#7 CNJRoss

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Posted 19 October 2016 - 12:07 PM

Boston Herald,10/19:
 

MBTA paying firm $1M to assess outsourcing options

 

The MBTA is quietly paying nearly $1 million to a consultant to “assess the options” for outsourcing jobs and services throughout the cash-strapped transit agency, the Herald has learned — further fanning the flames in a public feud between Gov. Charlie Baker and unions intent on stopping 
privatization at the T.

 

At the MBTA’s request, global consulting firm McKinsey & Company submitted a Sept. 9 proposal to acting General Manager Brian Shortsleeve offering its help to “explore and implement new operating models,” according to a copy of the pitch obtained by the Herald and confirmed by T officials.

 

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#8 CNJRoss

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Posted 13 January 2017 - 01:59 PM

MBTA news release, 1/9:

FMCB Awards Contract for MBTA Warehouse Operations; Projected Savings of $64 Million 

 

Five-year Mancon contract to reduce maintenance response times by nearly 2.5 days

 

 

BOSTON – The Fiscal and Management Control Board (FMCB) today unanimously approved a five-year contract with Management Consulting, Inc., (Mancon) to manage the MBTA's warehouse operations with a projection of $64.2 million in total savings and avoided costs. The shift is estimated to allow a 34 percent increase in the MBTA’s inventory accuracy and improve mechanic productivity, service, and efficiency. A 24/7, 10-hour delivery guarantee of standard requests to maintenance facilities is projected to reduce the MBTA’s current response times by 58 hours, or 2.5 days, compared to the current eight-hours-a-day and weekday-only service.

 

“The MBTA should and will continue to be in the business of moving our customers more efficiently, and modernized warehouse and logistics operations will both reduce costs and wait times for servicing our fleets,” said MBTA Acting General Manager Brian Shortsleeve. “This contract will allow us to increase the productivity of our maintenance operations and management of our inventory, improving response and repair times and the reliability of our vehicles for the riders who depend on the MBTA each day.”

 

The total warehousing and logistics operating budget for Fiscal Year 2017 (FY ’17) is allocated at $8 million with the totally loaded budget (including warehousing costs, cost of mechanic labor, cost of retiree healthcare, and pension costs) exceeding $12 million annually. The estimated annual cost based on a five-year contract with Mancon (including the current scope of services, an expanded scope of services, and MBTA administration costs) is $7.4 million. The Mancon contract is anticipated to help ease a forecasted FY ’17 $80 million operating budget deficit and reduce wait times for disabled vehicles, which accounted for more than one in every five dropped trips in FY ’17 to date. The MBTA is projected to avoid $16 million in capital costs to improve its current warehouse facilities and recover $39 million by better managing and divesting of unneeded inventory.

 

Mancon, which contracts with transit agencies in Ohio, Virginia, and London, was chosen for its extensive and superior performance in managing spare parts operations for public sector entities, including bus and train operations. Mancon proposed a dedicated Operations Manager and team working exclusively with the MBTA as well as the best Transition Plan, fixing the Central Warehouse’s issues sooner than other proposed vendors with modern techniques and industry-best practices. Mancon will use its own facilities, labor, vehicles, software, management systems, and equipment in managing the MBTA’s warehousing operations. The MBTA’s contract management team will also closely monitor the contract with performance-based, industry-standard penalties and bonuses with daily, weekly, and monthly reviews. Current MBTA warehouse employees will have the opportunity to apply for other jobs at the MBTA due to “bump back” rights.

 

Today’s action is the second effort by the MBTA to contract out and streamline service reliability, following the awarding of a contract to Brinks Incorporated last year to privately manage cash-collecting operations. Analyses by warehousing and supply chain experts found major systemic operational and financial inefficiencies with the MBTA’s main warehouse facility, including warehouse inventory inaccuracies (~61 percent), a delivery time of 68+ hours from warehouse to base locations (compared to the industry standard of 12 hours), and poor productivity of parts collections at 90 percent below the industry standard, resulting in delays servicing disabled vehicles in need of repair.

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#9 CNJRoss

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Posted 04 October 2017 - 09:07 PM

Metro.US Boston, 10/3/17:
 

Lawmakers, union leaders want MBTA privatization reigned in

 

A State House hearing Monday focused on a bill that would reinstate the Pacheco law. That bill has two-dozen co-sponsors.

 

 

The MBTA privatization debate may change course after lawmakers urged their colleagues Monday to start rolling back the privatization powers they granted the T after the disastrous 2015 winter.

 

SNIP

 

There’s only nine months left in that three-year reprieve, and at a State House hearing Monday on the issue of restoring the law, legislators who helped suspend it said that they are now looking to reign in the T’s ability to outsource such work. The bill to reinstate the law has two-dozen co-sponsors.

 

If MBTA maintenance workers are laid off due to privatization, they’ll end up relying on state programs for assistance, Rep. Marjorie Decker said Monday.

 

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