The Massachusetts AFL-CIO on Monday named three regional labor leaders to a shortlist for a spot on the new MBTA board of directors, the first names to emerge ahead of the panel’s official launch.
Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Steven Tolman tapped Robert Butler of Braintree, Northeast regional council president for the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers union; Craig Hughes of Wilmington, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers’ Grand Lodge representative for the eastern territory; and Darlene Lombos of Boston, executive secretary-treasurer of the Greater Boston Labor Council.
In a letter to Gov. Charlie Baker, Tolman said all three “represent the Labor Movement’s values and members who rely on the Commonwealth having a safe, reliable and equitable public transportation system.”
Baker must select one person from the trio of AFL-CIO nominees to serve on the new, seven-member MBTA Board of Directors, created in a law he signed last month to succeed the now-dissolved MBTA Fiscal and Management Control Board.
The governor will appoint four other board members: one with safety experience, one from a transit operations background, one with experience in finance, and one who is a rider from an environmental justice population.
The secretary of transportation will serve in an ex officio role, and the independent MBTA Advisory Board that represents cities and towns will select the final member.
Baker said last week that he expects to name members to the board “sometime in the next four to six weeks.”
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