The US Congress will hold hearings on the proposed DHL-UPS airlift deal in September in response togrowing political pressure over DHL’s US cutbacks in Wilmington, Ohio. The DHL US restructuring is
also getting drawn increasingly into the presidential race with a row over a radio ad on the issue.The chairman of the House of Representatives’ transportation and infrastructure committee,James Oberstar, announced on Friday that the session will be held when the Congress returns fromits summer break in September. The Democrat said he was concerned about the impact of the proposedjob on service, costs, consumer choice and jobs. In addition, John Conyers, head of the judiciarycommittee, said there would be a hearing on the proposed DHL-UPS deal.
Ohio’s congressional delegation, including both Republicans and Democrats, had called for thehearings to discuss the closure of DHL’s US air hub at Wilmington, which is likely to lead to 8,000job losses at the present airlift suppliers ABX Air and Astar Air Cargo along with the local DHLoperation.
The two US presidential candidates, John McCain and Barack Obama, have also taken up theplanned DHL-UPS airlift outsourcing deal as a campaign issue, demanding government reviews of anypotential anti-trust impact and public sector support for employees who lose their jobs.
The Obama campaign has launched a radio advertisement criticising the involvement of McCain’scampaign manager, Rick Davis, in lobbying the Senate to accept Deutsche Post’s $1 billionacquisition of Wilmington-based Airborne Express in 2003. The ad also claims that McCain helped toget Senate support for the acquisition. The McCain campaign hit back, claiming the Democrats were “politicising” the Wilmington situation.
Meanwhile, Deutsche Post World Net has set up a special management team headed by Ohionative, Marv Larger, to discuss the impact of the cutbacks in Wilmington with local officials andaffected persons, Reuters reported. The team would decide whether DPWN should provide financialsupport in Wilmington.
