Port pilots’ high pay rankles

Re “L.A.’s port pilots awash in OT pay,” July 25

The article on the sixfigure earnings of Los Angeles port pilots highlights the problem with public employee union contracts: The taxpayers, the ones writing the checks, never have a seat at the table. Plus, it appears that no one, including elected officials, cares about this.

When I was growing up, public employees were usually paid less than those in comparable private-sector jobs, but their jobs and modest retirement incomes were very secure. Now, some public employees are being paid exceptionally well and take for granted generous pensions that most privatesector workers have accepted as a thing of the past.

Oh, and isn’t it amazing that the ports that have privatized this function are easily controlling their cost exposure in this?

I am all for compensating our public servants appropriately, but things have gotten out of hand. And it’s appalling that it’s rarely an issue come election time. Kathy Erickson

Playa del Rey

One of the highest paid port pilots working in Los Angeles’ harbor made $602,000 in the last fiscal year.

Clearly, I wasted my time attending medical school and residency, since I make only a fraction of that amount as a neurologist. It appears I could have had a much higher standard of living if I had chosen to be a port pilot instead. Susan Skinner

Newport Beach