7/15/2008 9:34:00 AM Air park workers meet with Strickland Petitions with more than 9,000 signatures handed over to governor, attorney general, DHL officials
GOV. STRICKLAND
From staff, wire reports
Wilmington Air Park workers and their families met in Columbus Monday with Gov. Ted Strickland to request his continued help to prevent DHL from leaving Wilmington.
DHL wants United Parcel Service to replace ABX Air and ASTAR Air Cargo in transporting DHL packages. That would mean much of the work normally handled at Wilmington Air Park would be transferred to UPS facilities, threatening at least 6,000 jobs.
John Graber, president of ABX Air, Inc., said Monday he is proud of the way ABX employees have performed since DHL's announcment in May.
"Our employees remain focused on delivering exceptional service to DHL," Graber said. "They have maintained a 98.96 percent average on-time rate, including three 100 percent on-time nights since the May 28 announcement."
Graber also said that the company and its parent, ATSG Inc., are continuing efforts to present DHL with an alternate plan.
"We remain convinced that DHL and its customers would be better served by our dedicated, efficient, and customized air network in the U.S," he said.
ABX Air has been DHL's principal business partner in the United States since August 2003, when it became an independent publicly held company as its former parent, Airborne Express, was acquired by DHL. The relationship is governed by two commercial agreements, an Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance & Insurance (ACMI) Agreement that continues through August 2010 and a Hub Services Agreement that runs through August 2009.
Governor Strickland already has asked his legal advisers to investigate whether the proposal would violate federal antitrust laws.
Also Monday, Sen. Sherrod Brown gave DHL officials in Wilmington petitions bearing more than 9,000 signatures urging the package delivery service to keep its work at its hub in southwest Ohio while the Coalition to Save Jobs presented the petitions to Strickland and Ohio Attorney General Nancy Hardin Rogers.
ABX employees and a union that represents postal workers have started a petition drive and letter-writing campaign to try to convince DHL to abandon its plan.
