BOSTON -- The MBTA is relying on the labor of inmates and union members to clear its snow and ice covered tracks Monday.

MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo confirmed in a series of emails over a 12-hour period that the system is using inmates from the Massachusetts Department of Corrections, and union members from the Boston Building Trades and SEIU locals to help the system dig out.

Universal Hub is reporting that the union members will be paid $30 per hour for their efforts. Pesaturo declined to go into details about what they would be paid and referred media to their collective bargaining contracts.

Pesaturo described the effort as "an all out snow removal offensive on the Braintree branch."

Non-union workers were not allowed to apply for shoveling jobs as the MBTA reached out to local unions and did not post the jobs publicly, according to Pesaturo.

"A special thanks to the Red Cross, which will support our snow fighting battalion with coffee, water and food," said Pesaturo.