You nailed it in the first line. This sounds exactly like an "explanation" cooked-up by the chefs of BS in Memphis. They are hoping the gullible will fall for it and come back into the fold.
"You can fool too many of the people too much of the time" James Thurber
Unfortunately, this quote applies directly to the Express wage employees.
Fred can't fool all of them all of the time, neither can he fool most of them most of the time anymore. However, it does appear that he is trying to fool just enough (many) too much of the time lately - to keep his volume moving until he has reached his end goal.
The thing that REALLY caught me, was the target stock price quoted. That was NAILED as not only an internal FedEx goal (openly discussed with institutional investors), but also as a market target as being achievable with the things which were discussed in the investors' conference calls (among other communication openly released). This tells me that the PR department of Express is doing their homework now, in order to come up with talking points to give their frontline management to keep the natives in line. They know there are problems (what happened to your 'feedback' for the all important SFA???).
Put another way - they know things are getting ugly in the trenches - so they have to really start putting some thought into the BS they create.
Unfortunately, Fred will be able to continue to fool enough of them for long enough, to pull off what he is planning.
I did relate my first experience of an Express manager lying to me some time back (it was in the first months of my employment). For me, it was what some would call a 'Learning Moment'.
I took this manager completely at their word when they told me something (it was an important thing, it wasn't some little minor issue). When I later found out that not only did this manager lie, but did so willingly and without any remorse, I was left dumbstruck at what had happened. I had NEVER had any previous employer who would tolerate such behavior - lying was grounds for immediate dismissal (for any employee, management or not), since it destroyed the ability of management to be both respected and trusted by the employee.
I can understand (I do so myself many days), when an honest answer cannot be given for some reason to a subordinate; in this situation one falls back on the, "No comment" line, or "I'm not at liberty to discuss that with you", but I NEVER lie and those who are subordinate to me (and above me), know that well. But when someone states something that is untrue (and they know it), all just to get something they want at the moment - unforgivable in my book.
This particular ops manager's senior manager didn't really care the manager lied to me - it was all done to achieve an 'operational goal' that was believed to be necessary to get me to go along with at the time. However, falsification done by a wage employee was grounds for immediate termination... It didn't take long for me to learn that Express was built upon lies - those above lied to those below; however those below were forbidden to lie to those above.
This is corporate wide in Express and is true from the top all the way down. Those in Memphis will use deception and outright lies (something they know to be untrue), in order to get those down the line to do what they want. The talking points is classic - most of the time they are artfully crafted deception, some of the time, they are outright lies told in order to get behavior out of those further down the line that normally couldn't be expected. If one has read the old FedUp web page, the author recounts instances of lies told by Fred himself back in the late 90's to get what he wanted at the time - he didn't care that he was later found out to have lied, he got what he wanted at the time. That was the important thing. It is institutionalized corporate culture in FedEx for those in positions of authority over others to outright lie in order to get what they want if they need. The track record is well established at this point.
I had my 'learning moment' within months of working for Express. I'm still astounded that those who have been with Express for years and years still don't seem to have recognized the learning moment and taken it to heart. If your employer has no inhibition on them about lying to you (in order to get what THEY want), they can and will lie at any time - it becomes standard procedure.
I quickly got to the point where if particular manager's mouths were moving, I automatically assumed they were lying, until I could prove otherwise. I got into heated arguments with a couple of them when I flat out told them this assumption of mine - and was able to recount instances of their having lied to other employees. Initially, they were frightened that word got around that they lied (and the employee was smart enough to catch them on it), but then they got angry that I called them out on it. Those who tell lies don't like to be confronted with the fact that they've been found out - they like to think they are smarter than their subordinates.
Memphis likes to think they are smarter than you too.... Until you get wise and do something about it, don't expect the lies to stop. Only expect them to get bigger and bigger to get you to keep complying with what they want you to do.