About Us

The Boston Carmen’s Union, Local 589 is the voice of over 6,000 MBTA Union transit professionals and is a member of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), which is the largest labor organization representing over 180,000 transit professionals in the United States and Canada.

These transit professionals are comprised of bus, van, subway, and light rail operators, clerks, baggage handlers and maintenance employees in urban transit, over-the-road and school bus industries, as well as emergency medical service personnel, ambulance operators, clerical personnel, and municipal workers.

For more information about the ATU, visit their website.

Permanent link to this article: https://carmensunion589.org/about-us/

Boston Police leave a meeting after voting to strike. Note how young most of the officers were, many veterans of the Great War and with young families.

History

Several attempts had been made to organize the employees of the Boston Elevated Company (referred to as the “L” as opposed to today’s “T”) prior to 1912. There had been an unsuccessful strike over the right to organize in 1897. 1912 marked the first time that a Union organizing drive was backed by an International …

In Memoriam

We pay tribute to all our brothers and sisters who are no longer with us. Their hard work, dedication, and sacrifice in fighting for the rights and dignity of transit workers have paved a path for what we enjoy today. It is because of them that we have a stronger voice in the workplace and …

Mission

The mission of the Boston Carmen’s Union, Local 589 is to: secure and defend our member’s rights, safeguard our interests as workingmen and women, create an authority whose seal shall constitute a certificate of character, intelligence and skill, build up an organization whereby the working members of our craft can participate in the discussions of …