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Brown, Voinovich, White House in agreement on DHL
Sens. George Voinovich and Sherrod Brown met Thursday, July 24, with the man assigned by the Bush administration to be the point person on DHL’s proposal to consolidate air operations with UPS, a proposal that could cost the Wilmington area more than 8,000 jobs.
The senators met in Brown’s office with Sandy K. Baruah, assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development, after asking White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten to put someone in charge of the issue.
Brown, D-Ohio, said Baruah said the goal will be to coordinate actions to fight back to preserve the more than 8,000 jobs at risk and “if that doesn’t work, to make sure (the administration) has a full-time person on the ground to help the region move forward in case jobs are lost in that facility.”
“This is 8,000 jobs,” Brown said. “(Baruah) made it analogous to a base closing in terms of economic impact.”
Baruah is familiar with the region - Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, brought him to Wilmington over the July 4 recess, not long after the DHL proposal was announced to alert him of its seriousness.
Brown said should the jobs leave, the administration has promised it will send someone to the region to help find new jobs to replace those lost - the first time the Bush administration has done so. Still, with six months left in the Bush administration, it’s unclear if the proposal would come to fruition while the administration is still in office.
Still, Brown said he’s optimistic that the state and federal governments can keep the consolidation from happening. Both the state congressional delegation and state leaders have asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate whether the DHL proposal violates U.S. antritrust laws by reducing competition in the express package delivery market.
“We do need to prepare on the ‘what if,’” Brown said. “But the emphasis is on keeping jobs and I’m still optimistic that we can.”
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