Abandoning workers in Ohio
IT'S GOING to be a lean Christmas this year in Wilmington, Ohio.
In early November, shipping giant DHL announced plans to essentially shut down its U.S. operations, putting at least 9,500 people out of work. Most of those (more than 7,000) losses are going to come in the city of Wilmington, where DHL established a hub in 2003, with the help of local and state government subsidies. The city was even building a new highway to benefit the company.
The closing of the Wilmington hub was announced in early spring of this year, and the effects were immediate and catastrophic. Although DHL directly employs only 700 people in the city, thousands more are contracted through ABX Air and ASTAR, making DHL the biggest employer in Wilmington, a city of 12,000, and the surrounding areas.
From homes with more than one DHL employee to local farmers who worked the night shift for health insurance, an estimated one in three households is directly affected.
After the initial announcement, houses went up for sale immediately, with many more now advertising rentals. The problem is that with the city's main employer gone, people aren't exactly lining up to move to rural Ohio. Residents expect a mass exodus, along with a hefty increase in foreclosures.
Empty storefronts along Main Street indicate that the losses are even deeper than has been widely reported. The Wilmington News Journal reports that as many as 12,000 people in the city and surrounding areas may lose their jobs as local businesses tied to the air park or dependent upon the proximity of DHL close down. The presence of DHL in the largest privately owned air park in the country brought in other businesses that are now treading water themselves. Even the schools will suffer as students move away with their parents in search of work.
With 60 to 65 percent of Wilmington residents facing unemployment, the state system is in a crisis. Even before the announced closing of DHL, the Ohio state unemployment budget was facing a shortfall. Now the state is asking for federal aid to meet the demand.
Mary Rapien, Cranston, R.I.
