I understand the context of the poster's use of the word merit. I don't think the implication is that anybody hired past 78-79 wasn't hired on merit.

I would describe my peers as extremely qualified and smart. ( I'm the exception in the "smarts" department and have no idea how I passed the Stanine) As a 78 hire, with the exception of the EEOC folks, just about ALL my peers were ueber qualified. Everybody in my class were high time military guys, some with masters degrees. At the time there had been NO pilots hired by United for some 8 years and the pool of ultra qualified candidates was ridiculously high....I heard something like 20,000. Classes were small....6-8 at the time I was hired.

In any case....a great bunch of pilots IMHO. They also were VERY strong during the strike too, with a miniscule scab %.