ABX Announces Layoffs

Thomas L. Gallagher
Web Editor

ABX Air is cutting jobs all over the country.

In addition to the 8,000 workers at a package-sorting hub operated for DHL in Wilmington, Ohio, as many as 3,500 employees may be affected at 16 regional hubs in the United States as the cargo airline responds to the loss of business from its primary customer, DHL Express.

DHL Express announced Nov. 10 that it will end its domestic shipping operations in the United States by the end of January, and close its U.S. hubs. As many as 9,500 DHL employees will likely lose their jobs as the company ceases operations in the United States.

ABX layoffs in Ohio began Nov. 14. ABX Air said in a filing with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services it will cut 158 jobs there by mid-January. The layoffs will include 33 pilots, two of whom are captains, and other hourly and salaried personnel. The state agency will administer a $3.9 million National Emergency Grant from the U.S. Department of Labor targeted at 386 workers affected by layoffs in the Wilmington Air Park area.

ABX will also close its Tom Andrews Road facility in Roanoke, Va., eliminating 73 jobs, effective Jan. 13. The company submitted a notice Nov. 14 to the Governor's Office for Workforce Development.

The company notified the Washington Employment Security Department's Dislocated Worker Unit on Nov. 14 that the ABX Air distribution center in the Port of Chehalis, Wash., halfway between Portland and Seattle, is scheduled to close permanently Jan. 13, eliminating 52 jobs.