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DHL cutting 1,000 jobs from Airborne's Seattle facility

By Shirleen Holt
Seattle Times business reporter

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As expected, 1,000 former Airborne Express workers will lose their jobs in Seattle over the next 12 months as the new owner, German air-cargo company DHL Express, concentrates operations at its headquarters in South Florida.

DHL filed the layoff notice with the state Employment Security Department yesterday, ending faint hope that some administrative jobs might remain here.

Workers at the offices in Belltown received no official company-wide announcement of the job cuts. But many have already gotten offers to relocate to other offices around the United States.

"Most here at our corporate offices have been extended job offers to relocate," said spokesman Robert Mintz. "I'd say 75 percent."

About 360 information-technology jobs will move to Scottsdale, Ariz., where the company operates an IT center. Some customer-relations jobs are moving to Tempe, Ariz. Back-office positions, including marketing, finance and human resources, are moving to DHL's U.S. headquarters in Plantation, Fla. Billing functions will move to Houston.

Employees who chose not to relocate were granted severance packages that included two weeks' vacation pay plus a week's salary for every year worked, according to one company insider. Certain key staff members were offered retention bonuses to stay until the conversion is complete.

The cuts come nearly eight months after DHL completed a $1.05 billion acquisition of Airborne's ground-delivery operation. Since then, the merging organization has operated from both Seattle and Florida headquarters.

DHL announced in October it would close the Seattle office and cut 520 local jobs. That number has since been boosted to 1,000. About 300 delivery and sales staff will remain in the Puget Sound area.

The layoffs are one more damper on Seattle's slow job recovery. The metropolitan area, which accounts for half the state's employment, has gained only 10,600 jobs since the recession ended last June. This, compared with 36,100 new jobs created in outlying areas.

DHL is owned by the conglomerate Deutsche Post, which owns Germany's postal service. The company bought Airborne to expand its ground-delivery business and to compete against Federal Express and United Parcel Service.
 
DHL operates out of Florida to better communicate with its global headquarters in Europe, a spokeswoman said last fall.

Shirleen Holt: 206-464-8316 or sholt@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company