DHL Cuts 9,500 Jobs in U.S., and an Ohio Town Takes the Brunt

[Joanne98]

WILMINGTON, Ohio — When the owner of the big shipping company DHL U.S. Express announced on Monday that it planned to cut 9,500 jobs in the United States, the news hit this town the hardest.

Wilmington is home to a sprawling distribution hub, and more than 7,000 jobs will disappear, devastating the local economy.

“This is a catastrophic event for the entire region,” said David L. Raizk, the mayor of Wilmington, a city of about 12,000 just 40 miles north of Cincinnati. He said that 20 percent of the region’s businesses depended on the hub and would most likely close.

The move was a sharp reversal for Deutsche Post, the German company that owns DHL, which had said that it was planning to maintain its American operations by turning over its domestic air-cargo service to its rival United Parcel Service.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/11/business/11dhl.html?hp


Strickland says Washington has to come to aid of Ohio

In the wake of today's announcement by DHL’s German parent that it will end U.S. domestic services in January, including at a hub in Wilmington, Gov. Ted Strickland called for the federal government to give more financial help to Ohio and other struggling states.


He also blasted the Bush Administration for the “terrible mismanagement of this economy at the federal level.”

Strickland called on the federal government to provide more direct assistance to states before the end of the year in the form of block grants, extended unemployment benefits, help with funding Medicaid and a job-creation initiative.

“I believe we are facing the most difficult economic circumstances faced since World War II,” Strickland told reporters today. “I believe the worst is yet to come, and I’m not just talking about Ohio here; I’m talking about the national economy.”

When asked where the money for a state bailout would come from, Strickland noted that money was found for the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street – which he complained helped corporations pay dividends to shareholders or facilitate consolidations and mergers that are costing Ohio even more jobs.

“It’s time that we had attention paid to the needs of real people in real communities,” he said. “We are facing very difficult circumstances. I wonder if the people in Washington D.C., and I’m talking about this administration, has any idea of what’s going on in the grassroots of this country.”

Strickland already has ordered two rounds of state budget cuts and other adjustments this year. He said he hopes another round of cuts is not needed but “will do what I have to do in order to maintain a balanced budget.”

The governor downplayed any suggestion of tax increase, saying, “A tax hike under these circumstances would be, in my judgment, counter-productive.”

http://blog.dispatch.com/dailybriefing/2008/11/strickland_says_washington_has_1.shtml

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