Baker reacts to vid of prone T worker
Claims it justifies outsourcing plan
Gov. Charlie Baker pointed to the image of an MBTA employee lying face-down on a yoga mat inside the T’s “money room” as a reason the agency is seeking to outsource its cash-counting operation, saying the T should stick to what it “does well.”
“With situations like the money room where there are other people who are much better at it than the T is, we should talk to them about providing us with that service,” Baker told reporters yesterday. “The T should focus on the things it does well.”
The Herald reported yesterday in a front-page story that an MBTA surveillance video captured a union worker in the much-maligned “money room” rolling out the yoga mat, then lying down with her eyes closed while cash lay scattered on a nearby table.
The Feb. 19 incident was never investigated and the worker wasn’t identified, because it happened before the MBTA’s GM installed new non-union employees to supervise the money-counting operation, officials said.
An image from the surveillance video, provided by the T, shows the worker inside the manager’s office on the floor. Just outside the office, cash and latex gloves were strewn on a counting table.
There appears to be another worker just around the corner from the table.
The T has sought bids from private firms to run its cash-counting operation. The Herald has reported that the Carmen’s Union Local 589 sent letters to several potential bidders for the money room contract, warning them they would have to negotiate with the union and if they didn’t, they could face legal action.
The debate comes amid a wider one of potential privatization at the T, including its core functions. A report released this month by the MBTA’s Fiscal Management and Control Board identified several examples of “an area of opportunity,” at the T including bus operations, where the T said its bus drivers, at $35.86 per hour, are the highest paid in the country.