ALPA didn’t even bother with the safety scapegoat. The leaders danced around an implied, and non-existent vote that the members didn’t support it to retain power. I never got a vote and my 30 years of dues have never been in arrears.
Theirs never been such a large group of a younger demographic in ALPA before, and this is straight union politics.
The reasonable person would think science and medical fitness would be factors in the discussion, but sadly it’s all the politics of retaining power in the world’s largest pilot union.
The internal machinations of ALPA is the only factor driving the mandatory retirement age and the average observer has no window into that, so they mistakenly assume it has something to do with safety and common sense.