While this initially seems like a great step forward in saving the T some money the article also mentions a 14% raise in salaries.

Good, now can we do something about early retirement, and limits on taking another job?

I'm willing to forgo the scrooginess if the MBTA delivers the best customer service out there, since these people have nothing to be complaining about for what they do.

13% raise

It's worth repeating that the pay and benefits at the T are much too generous. I don't know of any company that allows retirement with a 60+% pension after 23 years regardless of age and gives lifetime health care, especially for jobs that pay above scale for little or no skills.

Here's another vote for eliminating the lifetime healthcare and the retirement/pension regardless of age.

Just a continuing example of PUBLIC SERVICE EMPOYEES' EXTORTION of the tax and fare paying public. That's the folks who have to pay their fare or tolls to get to work and endure low or no raises because the company they work for can't just increase their prices because it would make them uncompetitive. The same folks who pay a much larger hospitalization premimuns and copays(if they have health ins.)and have to pay for their own insurance if they ever get to retire after 30+ years on the money they were able to save. Just so these Public Service (what a misnomer) employees can have almost fully paid health care even after retirement on a COL adjusted pension that they don't even have to pay state income taxes on. And yet even when MBTA doesn't have the $ they still approved salary increases. How can they do that? Easy, just stick it to the rest of us with increased fares and/or taxes. Then that can be a guide for the teachers who refuse to be tested for compentency in the subjects they're teaching, or the fire fighters who want a big salary increase if you want to see if they're sober and not on drugs - something even the mimimum wage employers have the right to do at ramdom, or detail cops who have police power to enforce their extortion.
How much extortion will we take before saying ENOUGH we're not taking any more and the public service extortionists will have to live under the same conditions as we, the folks paying the bills, have to live with???