When news broke that DHL is planning to cut its domestic express package services, 7,000 people out of 12,000 in Wilmington, Ohio found themselves scrambling to look for a job. Scott Terry is one of them.
Terry, 41, spent the last 18 years working at a job he loves at ABX Air. He and his teammates planned to retire from the company. But now, he tells Reuters, it’s devastating not only to his family, but to the entire town and county.
David Razik, mayor of this small town, just 40 miles north of Cincinnati, tells the New York Times that the event would be catastrophic to the region because “20 percent of the region’s businesses depended on the hub and would most likely close.”
The staff at the General Denver Hotel and Grille is trying to keep the business open by volunteering to cut their hours or take a reduction in pay. Owner Molly Dullea and her staff have been trying to figure out how much business will be lost. She said that 30 percent could be enough to force her to close.
Deutsche Post, parent of DHL, acquired and operated the Wilmington hub in 2003 in conjuction with ABX Air and Astar Air Cargo. Astar Air Cargo has been mum about the layoffs, although the closing will probably affect its employees also.
Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio wants federal aid to “retrain workers and provide other help for the thousands who lose their jobs.” He also wants DHL to help Wilimington financially by turning over the Wilmington Air Park, where DHL had its hub, with some subsidies.
In the meantime, ABX worker Terry said that he plans on going back to school to learn a skilled trade, probably heating and air conditioning repair, which can’t be outsouced or lost overseas.
Despite the bad news, as it turned to dusk, Wilmington townspeople turned on their Christmas lights and continued to prepare for the December festival, which draws hundreds, all vowing to survive.
Inn owner Dullea said that Wilmington is ‘”the quintessential hometown, the place everyone wishes they had…they have no doubt they will save the town.”‘
