Glueball: that is a sad situation. Does anything in US (anti-) labor law forbid stranding crewmembers overseas, when pilots go by the mediation and "cooling off"
procedures of the Railway Labor Act?
At the site "airlinepilotpay.com", there is a link, on the right side of the page, to a Fedex MEC spokesman. He claimed that World is seeking retired FEDEX MD-11 pilots to use as SCABS, and unless I'm mistaken, quite a number could volunteer.
This appears to be for Part 91 operations, for repositioning aircraft, which has no age (or duty period) limitation. At my company, some retired guys reposition our aircraft for contract maintenance.