No cheap ride to fight MBTA privatization
Union drops big dough on lobbying effort
Facing its most serious threat of privatization in a generation, the MBTA’s largest union did what most would do: It lobbied. A lot.
In the end, the Boston Carmen’s Union Local 589 spent $255,155 on lobbyists across 2015 and 2016, the most it’s ever spent over a two-year legislative session dating back to at least 2005, and perhaps ever. (The secretary of state’s online lobbyist records don’t go back any further.)
The number, detailed with the help of recently filed lobbying reports, came amid a barrage of developments around the T, starting with a historic winter that thrust it into a privatization debate, its members into protests, its leaders (at one point) into handcuffs and, eventually, to a new collective bargaining agreement.
The six-figure total was largely split on two firms, The Suffolk Group and Beacon Strategies Group, whom the Carmen hired in 2015 to press its case on Beacon Hill.
But even in spite of the blitz — it spent $135,000 on lobbying alone in 2015 — the Carmen still absorbed a notable setback: Its push to convince the Legislature not to strip the MBTA of the Pacheco Law and the hurdles it puts on privatization failed. The decision ultimately gave T officials the leverage it used to help strike a new labor contract, which guaranteed thousands of workers jobs in exchange for savings on salaries.
In the months before that, the union’s focus largely shifted from Beacon Hill to the MBTA’s Fiscal Management and Control Board, where it regularly spoke out at meetings. At one point, union members even protested at the T’s so-called “cash room” — which the board later voted to outsource — by blocking the entrance, leading to the arrest of several union officials.
In most years, the Carmen’s Union spends roughly $60,000 on lobbyists, according to records. The only other time it approached last session’s lofty payments was during the 2009-2010 session, when the Legislature passed a slate of pension reforms that impacted T workers. The union spent $233,486 over that two-year span.
Jim O’Brien, the union’s president, declined to comment on its lobbying efforts through a spokesman Friday.
Lawyer up
Ex-state Sen. Brian Joyce is no longer in the Legislature, having not sought re-election as a cloud of a federal investigation hung over him. That type of heat, however, doesn’t come cheap. Joyce reported spending about $33,500 on legal costs to the Boston firm Todd & Weld, according to a recent campaign finance report and the only one Joyce was required to file over the last year. The legal bill was spread across three payments last year in January ($15,990.60), April ($10,000) and July ($7,500), and though they’re tagged as “legal services” or “legal fees,” they do not specify if they’re related to an investigation launched by state campaign finance officials — which wrapped in January 2016 — or something else. (Joyce’s law firm was raided by federal officials last winter.)
Joyce also created a legal fund through the Office of Campaign and Political Finance last April, though it showed no records of contributions as of Friday.
Mo’ Joe
U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III has been making the rounds of late, according to his office. His aides sent out an email documenting his travels to community health centers around the state last week, as detailed in headlines in the Dorchester Reporter, the Gloucester Times, Worcester Telegram & Gazette and the Taunton Gazette.
Of note: None of those papers, save for Taunton, actually reside in the 4th District that Kennedy represents.
It’s an example of the appeal the young Democrat has beyond the borders of towns he serves. It’s also a politically advantageous move to expand his brand should he ever jump into a run for higher (and wider) office one day.
He’s already shown interest, saying last summer — amid talk of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren being considered for the role of Hillary Clinton’s running mate — that he’d be open to exploring a run for her seat should it open.
“If that vacancy comes up, I will take a look at it,” Kennedy said last July.
Keeping that in mind, it doesn’t hurt for people (and reporters) in Boston, Gloucester and Worcester to see you in action beforehand, either.