I thought they just did it per the contract?

Seniority numbers will be assigned to individuals on the first day of their new-hire training in the following order:
a. b.
Company transferees will be assigned the lowest seniority numbers within the class, in order of their most recent date of employment with the Company, then
New-hires will be assigned seniority numbers on the basis of the last four digits of each individual’s social security number. Individuals with the higher numbers will be assigned the lowest seniority numbers.
Note: New-hires with identical last four digits of their social security numbers, and transferees with identical employment dates, will determine their relative placement by drawing numbers.


If memory serves, they did it wrong for a while in 2007 and it was a big deal and someone brought it to the attention of the powers that beans they corrected it.

In our class we only had a drop for 24 guys and had 25 in the class, so they shot the 25th guy because he was the lowest in seniority. This stuff matters.