ABX Air cutting an additional 182 jobs
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
WILMINGTON — ABX Air, preparing for the loss in 2009 of its biggest customer, express shipper DHL, has commenced a layoff of 182 employees at the DHL freight hub that will continue through Jan. 2.
ABX Air sent a Dec. 11 letter to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services to notify the state of the layoffs. It is the latest mass job loss announced by ABX Air, which operates DHL's U.S. freight sorting and distribution hub at Wilmington. ABX flies DHL cargo nationally from there, along with rival cargo airline ASTAR Air Cargo, and has been the largest employer at the hub and in the region for years.
The ABX layoff will include cargo sorting employees, ramp loaders and supervisors among various affected job categories.
In addition, DHL has been announcing its own layoffs as the company prepares to dramatically shrink its U.S. freight delivery network in 2009 to cut costs.
On Dec. 5, DHL said it would lay off 74 employees at its Wilmington operation. Since then, DHL has announced layoffs of 230 employees at two locations in the Cleveland area and 69 at an office in the Cincinnati suburb of Sharonville.
DHL plans to offer only cross-border deliveries between U.S. and foreign cities after January, and is negotiating to hire United Parcel Service to handle all its U.S. cargo sorting and flying from the UPS hub at Louisville, Ky. That will eliminate the need for DHL's Wilmington freight hub and the nearly 7,000 jobs remaining there, state officials have said.
