An Ironic Situation for Truck Drivers

Over the past several months, I have read of the plight of the poor downtrodden truck drivers working the Los Angeles-Long Beach harbor area as they try to throw off the yokes of oppression and gain a decent wage by forming a union. I must say that I find this situation very ironic. Aren’t these the same drivers that undercut union wages so drastically that they succeeded in driving the Teamsters Union from the harbor some years ago?

In “Machinists at McDonnell Strike Over Outsourcing” (June 6), Gerald Oulson, president of the St. Louis chapter of the International Assn. of Machinists, is quoted as whining about the “outsourcing” of his constituents’ work, work that rightfully belongs to his union, by the greedy McDonnell Douglas Corp.

What? Did I miss the articles in The Times where Mr. Oulson protested the “outsourcing” of the C-17 Cargo and T-45 production from the company’s Long Beach facility to his group in St. Louis? Many good employees lost their jobs in Long Beach to the benefit of Mr. Oulson’s union. It’s tough when the shoe is on the other foot.

MIKE WILKINS

Laguna Niguel