Excerpt from New Perspectives, Vol. 16: Fall, 1984

Like many aspects of American life, seniority systems in the past were sometimes written so as to directly discriminate against black and occasionally women workers. In some industries, therailroads in particular, collective bargaining contracts often called for separate seniority lists for black and white workers, a device which effectively prevented blacks from competing for better-paying jobs. Seniority systems in other industries, while not overtly discriminatory, had the clear effect of inhibiting the integration of the higher skilled and better paid crafts within industrial enterprises.

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