I don't think our union pushed for age 60 until Prater came in and added his tacit support for the change. Didn't like it--but that's what happened and now we deal with it.
The retro language in the Obestar stuff is compliments of ALPA, its exec board, and the blue ribbon panel. Our own Dave Webb was behind that being pushed into the wording according to some of the panel members.
We'll deal with it. However, there are a lot of mixed signals being sent on how our union felt about the problem. The whole "we were just reacting to outside forces..." is a bit dishonest in my opinion. Once the battle loomed, they wanted our mandate to "jump in and influence the outcome..." What they did was they jumped in and helped fast track it past the NPRM process and with the added retro language.
Again--changing the law the right or wrong thing to do? We can debate on that for years. What is apparent to me, however, is our union leadership told the body one story but pursued another agenda behind closed doors. Read the block rep responses and letters on the issue--there is a whole lot of "wink wink" they'll never get to BID back there language at times. The reality appears to be in fact the law will change, and the bid will happen at a time that allows the over 60 crowd to stay in place or back fill whatever vacancies are needed. Again--DW gets to take the "moral high ground" and tell the over 60 guys they'll get what they want, while other block reps quietly whisper "don't worry--won't happen--they can't bid back to those seats because the company will put out a monster bid and there won't be any openings...." Classic double speak trying to keep everyone happy. Fact is, someone is either misinformed or lying. That is why I think so many members, especially the junior guys, do not trust our current MEC leadership. Add a few other issues--VEBA, the Anchorage pass-over cop out, no change on 757 rates but a push for 777 as 380 rates, and a very substandard LOA, and at the least the appearance is that our MEC works off a different agenda at times than the majority of the crew force.