With the German owner of DHL Express preparing a public announcement next week about its restructuring to cut multimillion-dollar losses in its U.S. package delivery operations, officials are concerned that could speed the pace of job losses at DHL's domestic freight hub in Wilmington.

DHL declined on Friday, Nov. 7, to say what John Mullen, global chief executive officer of its German parent, Deutsche Post World Net, will announce on Monday.

But the U.S. economic slump and its drag on the number of packages being shipped through the express delivery industry is cause for concern in Wilmington, Mayor David Raizk said.

"We do think that their restructuring in the United States may be deeper and longer and wider than was originally envisioned," Raizk said in an interview. "It's obvious that there's a significantly lower amount of freight going through."

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, sent Mullen a letter Friday urging the company to move quickly in providing advance notice to employees and Ohio about large-scale layoffs.

Ohio is seeking a U.S. Department of Labor grant to provide job retraining and related services to employees who lose their jobs at the DHL Wilmington hub, Brown wrote. His letter reminded Mullen of the U.S. law that requires a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notification at least 60 days in advance of large-scale layoffs.

"It is my understanding that hundreds of DHL workers in Wilmington may have been terminated without a WARN notice," Brown wrote, without citing a source for that information. "Without detailed information, it is much more likely these workers will fall between the cracks in the workforce system."

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, which receives WARN notices, said it was not aware of any DHL layoffs in Wilmington that would have triggered the WARN notification requirement.

DHL has terminated a number of employees across the United States recently because of the slumping economy and its effect on package shipment volume, DHL spokesman Jonathan Baker said. He declined to say how many employees had lost jobs. The company will comply with any law requiring advance notification of large-scale job cuts, Baker said.

DHL announced in May that its U.S. restructuring, which will reduce the size of its U.S. delivery network, includes negotiating a 10-year, $1 billion-a-year deal to hire out its U.S. cargo sorting and flying to rival United Parcel Service. Shifting the work to UPS at its Louisville, Ky., hub will wipe out at least 8,200 jobs of contractor pilots and cargo sorters now employed at the Wilmington hub, Ohio officials have said.

ABX Air Inc., the biggest contractor for DHL in Wilmington, said it has lost 1,315 jobs there since May, among 2,200 worldwide.

UPS and DHL have said they hope to reach an agreement in time for the work to begin shifting to UPS late this year. Those negotiations are ongoing, Baker said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.