The Police association scoffed. Having opposed affirmative action with pieties about meritocracy, the same Association refused to allow tests. But when their own jobs, their own benefits, their own families and livelihoods are at stake, exception to meritocracy is taken for granted. Where the workplace reflects the diversity of the community it serves, seniority is a fair system of labor-management relations. Seniority gives employees some protection from the personal whims and private preferences of an employer.
Seniority offers some predictability, some job security in employment.
But where affirmative action is repealed, seniority loses its lesitmacy. Like New York Police Association policy, it becomes a tool for consolidating the old-boy networks, for restoring white,male supremacy. The repeal of affirmative action is tantamount to grandfathering women and people of color out of many institutions. Seniority and affirmative action are similar in key respects. The goal of seniority is job security.