First, try reading (as many times as you have time for) post #30 in this thread.
Second, as for why the dates were explicitly spelled out in the UPS Freight contract, think about this. The UPS contract was a FIRST time situation for them. There was no previous contract to refer to so everything, including dates, had to be detailed. Our NMFA contract was a renewal of a previous contract with certain changes. If a certain clause in the NMFA contract remained the same except for new dates, is it really that difficult to figure out the new dates in the same proportion to the old dates, i.e., April 1, 2003 (old contract) becomes April 1, 2008 (new contract), April 1, 2004 (old contract) now becomes April 1, 2009 (new contract)? Can you see the connection between the old dates and the new dates??
PS - Does all of this tell ya why I'd never want to be a steward or a BA??