With close family in New York City affected by the Transit worker’s strike, I was praying it would be over quickly. I feared that it might bring out the worst, like some crazed maniac gunning down innocent people in a fit of rage over not being able to take the subway to his low-paying job.

An agreement was reached on Tuesday, as reported in The New York Times today. For the most part, the unions were able to stand their ground. They made one major concession by agreeing to pay a portion of their healthcare, but other than that, they did not lose on pension and other benefits. The Transit Authority reportedly has amassed a one billion dollar surplus, and this money will be put to good use by paying the people who actually run the busses and trains.

The union reportedly went into negotiations wanting the age of retirement reduced. That did not happen, thankfully. Especially given the new regulations made by the Government Accounting Standards Board, which will require more calculations of the long-term costs of municipal benefits, I think that eventually municipal unions may have no choice but to agree to an increased age of retirement to account for the increase in human longevity and the way this will impact retirement funding.