MBTA: don't make a mess!

Secretary Richard Davey
Executive Office of Transportation
10 Park Plaza, Suite 4160
Boston, MA 02116

Just as the late-night T service is set to begin, the MBTA is planning to cut cleaning services to the bone beginning September 1st. At stations across the Greater Boston, nearly 100 out of 315 janitors are about to lose their jobs – nearly 1/3 of the total cleaning workforce. This means grime-filled staircases, dirty walls, garbage-strewn stations and sticky floors.

The workers who have been cleaning these stations for over 10 years know that these cuts are not going to work . . . and we are going to smell the results.

The MBTA cleaning cuts plan couldn't have come at a worse time. Weekend late-night service will bring more riders ready to have fun on a Saturday night, but fewer cleaners to clean up after them.

These drastic cuts, particularly during peak traffic hours, will not only undermine the quality of cleaning services, but will also make it nearly impossible for those workers retrained to get the job done. MBTA workers are routinely called upon to clean not only dirt and trash, but urine, vomit and feces; fewer janitors doing the job will have significant quality and public health ramifications.

We request that you urge the MBTA and the MBTA Board of Directors to take all necessary steps to ensure that it does not go forward with its current plan to decrease quality of service, cut necessary jobs that working families and the public rely on, and hurt our local economy.