Finally: Somebody did some Homework

DHL's proposed air line haul deal with UPS has caused considerable controversy since its announcement in May. Understandably, there's been a lot of concern from the citizens of Wilmington, Ohio, where DHL's hub is located, as well as employees, politicians, union officials and DHL customers. 

Much of what has been reported however has been inaccurate, or at the very least, lightly researched regarding what the history and business impact of the DHL/UPS deal is.  So much so that it's become a political football.  That's no surprise in a federal election year and in a politically important state like Ohio.  The situation is very serious for all concerned, so accurate information becomes all that much more important.

Having said the above, I want to point to the factcheck.org article that appeared in Newsweek this week. This article has more correct information than almost everything else I've read. Both the Obama and McCain camps would do well to read it.

Factcheck.org a nonpartisan, nonprofit, "consumer advocate" for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in US politics. The Annenberg Political Fact Check is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

I highly recommend reading the complete article!

clipped from www.newsweek.com Distorting the DHL Deal An AFL-CIO flier and Obama campaign ads say that McCain cost Ohioans 8,000 jobs. We say that's a distortion of the record. Joe Miller | factcheck.org Ads from the AFL-CIO and the Obama campaign claim that McCain is partly to blame for the loss of more than 8,000 jobs in Ohio. They paint a false picture. There's at least some truth in both ads: German-based DHL announced a deal that could result in 8,200 lost jobs in Wilmington, Ohio. And McCain did in fact oppose an amendment that would have kept DHL from buying Wilmington-based Airborne Express. McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, was also a DHL lobbyist charged with easing the merger through the Senate. But the ads go too far. Some statements about McCain are misleading and some of the inferences the ads invite are unsubstantiated: The ads charge that McCain opposition to a 2003 amendment helped DHL and amounted to turning his back on workers. That's misleading. McCain said he opposed a version of the amendment because it was a special project inserted into an unrelated bill, not to help DHL. And the Teamsters union praised the merger at the time, saying that it would lead to more jobs. And at first, more jobs indeed followed. The ads also imply that the DHL merger is a direct cause of the job losses in Ohio, which we find to be both unlikely and unsubstantiated. Airborne Express had laid off 2,000 employees before the merger, and analysts at the time said that the struggling carrier would need to make expensive investments in its international infrastructure to remain competitive. Analysis The AFL-CIO and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama are blaming John McCain for the loss of more than 8,000 jobs in southwestern Ohio. The AFL-CIO mailer is the most explicit, saying that "McCain helped cut a deal that sent over 8,000 jobs to a foreign-owned company." Obama's television ad, which began airing on Aug. 14, charges that "John McCain helped pave the way for foreign-owned DHL to take over an American shipping company." An Obama radio ad, which began airing in Ohio over the weekend, repeats the message that McCain "used his influence in the Senate to help foreign-owned DHL buy a U.S. company and gain control over the jobs that are now on the chopping block in Ohio."

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