Nader to Speak at "Save Ohio Jobs" Coalition Rally in Wilmington
Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Marc Abizeid, 831-818-7736, marcabizeid@votenader.org (national); Justin Jeffre, 917-881-9882, justinjeffre@votenader.org (local)
RALPH NADER AND MATT GONZALEZ STAND IN SOLIDARITY WITH OHIO WORKERS, POISED TO ADDRESS WILMINGTON RALLY MONDAY, SEPT. 8
On Monday, September 8 at 4:30 p.m., Independent Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader and running mate Matt Gonzalez will speak at a rally held at the Kelly Center of Wilmington College, 113 College St. Wilmington, OH 45177. The event is sponsored by the "Save Ohio Jobs" coalition which is demonstrating against the closure of a DHL freight hub in Wilmington.
DHL's
parent company, Deutsche Post World Net (DPWN), is in the midst of a
deal with United Parcel Service (UPS) which would allow UPS to take
over their regional operations. If the agreement is finalized, DHL
shipping operations would be transferred to a UPS facility in Kentucky
and force the closure of DHL's Wilmington hub.
Also
threatened by the deal are employees of Airborne Express, and its
offshoot ABX Air, which was acquired by DHL in 2003 to transfer
shipments. Shutting down
the hub, which is Wilmington's largest employer, would cost between
8,000 and 10,000 workers their jobs.
This proposed deal will severely impact the local community including the following consequences identified by the Save Ohio Jobs coalition:
- One out of every three households in Wilmington, Ohio has a family member employed by ABX Air or DHL
- The closure of the Wilmington hub translates to the immediate loss of 10,000 ABX, ASTAR Air Cargo and DHL jobs
- As the seismic effects of this closure roll through Wilmington, the city may lose up to 30,000 jobs as more businesses are forced to close
- According to the regional economic task force, 18 businesses may be forced to relocate due to the proposed agreement
- The task force also estimates the total short-term economic impact would be over half a billion dollars
Ralph
Nader and Matt Gonzalez stand in solidarity with those workers whose
jobs are being threatened by the viscous currents of corporate
globalization.
Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzalez will call for a Roundtable, a massive comprehensive lengthy community dialogue of several days where all the stakeholders and the company put all their cards on the table and see if they can come up with a solution that is good for the community.
Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzalez will also call on the
Justice Department to undertake an antitrust inquiry to see what the
anti-competitive consequences of this proposed deal may be, given that
it is already a concentrated industry that is a tight oligopoly.
For more information call Tony Olsen of the
Save Ohio Jobs coalition at 913-707-2471.
