MBTA union members to rally against privatization on Monday

The fight over privatization at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is just warming up, and the T’s largest labor group is gathering its members for battle on Monday.

After the MBTA’s board filed a report saying it could outsource driver and maintenance jobs, union officials are asking members to rally before a Monday fiscal and management control board meeting.

Union leaders asked supporters to show up to “make our voices heard,” according to a post on Facebook.

The Boston Carmen’s Union Local 589, the T’s largest labor group, put out a call out for a rally and “informational picket” in front of the State Transportation Building at 10 Park Plaza at 10:30 a.m.

In a report released this month, the board overseeing the MBTA said management is considering privatizing drivers and maintenance worker jobs — which could be the largest privatization effort at the MBTA by Governor Charlie Baker’s administration to date.

The report cited bus operations and maintenance as a potential target of privatization, which could affect hundreds of jobs: The MBTA has 450 bus maintenance workers and 1,700 full- and part-time bus drivers.

Asked specifically about Monday’s rally, Joe Pesaturo, a T spokesman, did not address the union’s plans, but said it is incumbent on T management to find areas to operate more efficiently.

Eforts to outsource such “core services” of the agency will be met with noisy opposition — including some on the T’s own board. Brian Lang, a board member who also heads the UNITE HERE Local 26 hotel and food services union, expressed strong opposition to outsourcing bus driver and maintenance jobs.

Union officials say MBTA workers are being punished for decades of failure by manangement and the upper echelons of the T.

But the MBTA looks poised to use the labor group’s generous contracts against it: Already, officials have repeatedly mentioned that bus drivers at the MBTA earn some of the highest rates across the country. Under the current contract, bus drivers earning the top rate earn nearly $36 an hour, which beats most metro area agencies across the country — even those with higher costs of living.