GM is gone, DHL leaving

Over the holidays, GM left the Dayton area. It was the last Ohio GM plant.

Workers at General Motors' Moraine Assembly plant rang out not just the old year but also a way of life last week when they left work and the plant closed.

It was the Dayton-area's last GM plant...

Much is written these days about the generous wages and benefits GM provided its workers — mainly through collective bargaining — as though these were bad things. In Dayton, Flint and other GM towns, the wages and benefits at the factories had a ripple effect, setting the standard for other employers, public and private.

Many families are now out of work, and as the article above notes, this will affect other businesses as well. Hopefully, Ohio will figure something out.

Unfortunately, this comes atop the earlier announcement of DHL closing its distribution hub in Wilmington which will cost thousands of jobs.

In May, DHL cut 5,400 workers. After January, DHL plans to cut service to only cross-border deliveries between U.S. and foreign cities.

As of the 23rd, Congress was investigating whether or not DHL is providing all the money it promised to help offset the economic devastation anticipated from the planned shutdown of its U.S. freight hub in Wilmington.

The lawmakers noted that in testimony to Congress, chief executive officer John Mullen of DHL Express said his company had agreed to provide at least $260 million for severance, retention and health care benefits for the Wilmington-area work force, including $225 million over and above contractual and legal obligations.

Voinovich, Brown and Turner also wrote that they are concerned DHL's planned deep cuts in its U.S. operations in 2009 could burden the U.S. worker pensions system....

..."DHL should understand that its failure to provide the promised mitigation assistance will be viewed as another example of the company's dismissive treatment, which will not be easily forgotten in the United States," the lawmakers wrote.

Times are definitely tough all over, but Ohio seems be getting an extra large slice of the old shit-pie.