A US Congress hearing on the proposed $10 billion airlift deal between DHL and UPS will be held onSeptember 16, it has been announced. US politicians have meanwhile called on German chancellor
Angela Merkel to put pressure on Deutsche Post and warned of wider international consequences ifthe cutbacks go through.The chairman of the House of Representatives’ transportation and infrastructure committee,James Oberstar, said the committee would hold a hearing on September 16 to look into issues of “competition, customer service and employment”. He did not say which witnesses he planned to callfor the session. John Conyers, head of the judiciary committee, has also said his committee wouldhold a hearing on the legal aspects of the proposed DHL-UPS deal.
Meanwhile, politicians in Ohio have stepped up efforts in recent days to gain support fortheir efforts to prevent closure of DHL’s Wilmington air hub with the likely loss of some 8,200jobs in the politically-sensitive state, and to block the DHL-UPS outsourcing deal. US presidentialcandidates John McCain and Barack Obama have already turned the restructuring plans into a campaignissue, demanding government reviews of any potential anti-trust impact and public sector supportfor employees who lose their jobs.
Ohio’s two Senators and several of the state’s members of Congress have now formally writtento German chancellor Angela Merkel, highlighting their concerns about the loss of jobs inWilmington and DHL’s decision to outsource air transportation in North America to UPS. They calledon her to bring the “international aspect” of the plans to the attention of DHL.
“We are concerned that DHL’s decision to abandon the Wilmington facility and the surroundingcommunities will have consequences in the United States beyond the immediate devastating impact tothe Wilmington area. Americans are starting to rethink their views on the benefits of globalinvestment and the interconnected global economic system. If DHL’s actions towards Wilmington areindicative, continued erosion in public support for international investment and the global economyis the likely result,” they warned.
“We raise this issue with you not only out of concern for the Ohio workers that will beimpacted by this decision, but also because we are concerned that such dismissive treatment by sucha significant German company will not be easily forgotten in the United States. The situation andDHL’s indifference could easily undermine US views on matters such as completing the next stage ofthe Open Skies, how foreign investment into the United States is viewed, and general US-Germantrade relations,” they added.
The Congress delegation said that local authorities, including the state of Ohio, hadinvested over $400 million into the Wilmington area in support of the DHL hub. They said DHL had a “ social obligation” to provide “substantial assistance” for workers losing their jobs, and thecompany should return Wilmington airport, which it owns, to the community and “provide therequisite assistance for the city to redevelop this important asset”.
Earlier this week, Deutsche Post World Net CEO Frank Appel rejected the growing US politicalcriticism and stressed that DHL Express, which expects to make a $1.3 billion loss this year, hadto undertake the restructuring plans in order to turn around the US Express business after years ofheavy losses. “There is no real alternative. Otherwise we would endanger our entire expressbusiness in the USA, and at the end of the day far more jobs would be threatened,” he declared in anewspaper interview.
Appel said the company was ready to set up a support programme for affected employees and theregion to help people find new jobs, but he had no plans to travel to the USA, as Republicancandidate John McCain had proposed.
