T CONTRACTORS ACCUSED OF THEFT
Pair arrested at the Fellsway garage
A pair of workers hired by the MBTA’s warehouse contractor were arrested and hauled away from a T garage yesterday after authorities say they were plundering copper wire, cables and other materials from the agency.
George Halley, 32, of Somerville and Michael Frisoli, 31, of Cambridge were arrested at the MBTA’s Fellsway garage in Medford and are both facing a charge of larceny over $250, transit police said.
The two are subcontractors for Mancon, Inc., the Virginia-based company the T inked to a $28 million contract this year to run its warehouse operations. Mancon officials said they did not know yesterday how much material, or at what cost, they’re accused of stealing.
“We have notified the contractor that this behavior is unacceptable and will not be tolerated,” MBTA General Manager Luis Ramirez said in a statement, adding that the workers have been barred from MBTA facilities. Ramirez said it was T staff who “recognize(d) the situation” and took “immediate action.”
The T’s Fiscal & Management Control Board approved a fiveyear, $28 million contract — with a pair of two-year extensions — with Mancon in January. At the time, then-General Manager Brian Shortsleeve touted the shift as a “win-win-win” that would give T mechanics the ability to get their hands on parts faster and save the T millions.
In the move, the T said it planned to eventually replace about two dozen unionized employees with more than 40 private employees.
In a statement released by the T, Mancon officials said they were “extremely disappointed.”
“We will take the appropriate action to terminate their employment if the accusations are substantiated,” the statement read.
T officials have touted their outsourcing efforts since the legislature granted them a waiver to more easily privatize parts of the system, saying the various contracts will save $400 million over 10 years. But it has drawn heavy criticism from unions.
James O’Brien, president of the Boston Carmen’s Union Local 589, criticized the T’s contract in the wake of the arrests, saying, “The Baker Administration has talked about privatization as if it’s a cure for public transportation. Clearly it isn’t.”