A very late explanation about how the push for age 65 went down. This created some heated finger pointing. Part of what DW said was while 65% of the panel at national was for age 65 change, 85% were for the retro part DW introduced. He said no other rep was going to introduce retro. DW thought it was the right thing to do so after age 65 changed to give those guys on the property over 60 the ability to excercise their seniority rights. He also said it would have put FDX ALPA on the wrong side of any litigation without our pro retro stance. Also said the really important part was getting our verbaige into the legislation. Without language saying the law did not trump CBAs, FedEx Corporation would have been free to make some changes to our contract (i.e. upgrades). Therefore, over 60 guys who turned 60 the week before the law was signed have to wait for a vacancy or excess bid to go back. No if ands or buts.

Also pointed out--Duane Worthe was for keeping age 60 and John Prater ran for change. Most of the MEC voted for Worthe. In DW's opinion, Duane Worthe may have been able to stall age 65 for another year or two, but no longer.