Don't mean to thread stomp here, but everything covered in a CBA is usually based on date of classification, or DOC. You wouldn't have a ramper of 10 years DOH, get his A&P, sucessfully bid a SWA mech position and automatically be topped out with 10 years of shift bidding rights. He would be day 1 on the payscale and shift bid. And this T/A is a permanent 4 year bump of DOC for SWA mechs, agreed by both SWA and AMFA, so they would have to abide by the CBA and top out the junior guy that surpasses the 5 year mark.. At lease, if I were the union and union rep, that's how I would read it and fight for it.
Just to reiterate, per the TA, the 4 year bump is a modification of the date of classification, not date of hire, otherwise AMFA and SWA would have to create another tier in the seniority list, similar to the RSD of the last TA. On this TA, there's no added tiers, just a modification. So a junior man of 1 year would jump to 5 years bidding and pay. Same goes for the longevity guys..That's my interpretation of how the TA is written.