This is not a letter to just Ohioans but to all Americans concerned about the state of our economy. I am a carpenter who started out working in Cincinnati, Columbus, and Dayton. I worked out of town for about five years. It was a very long commute. I finally got a job working for DP&L, building scaffold. I worked there on and off for about nine years. It was good money, close to home, had better benefits, and was better for my family and myself.

Now the problem is my company lost its contract. From what I understand our jobs are going to out of state, and possibly out of country workers; this concerns me. It’s not just me this is hurting. On DP&L outages my company employed up to sixty men and women, who are skilled craftsmen at their trade. It also held ten to fourteen men and women year round.

The money made locally helps to support local economy, if another company gets the contract and uses out of state, or foreign workers, then where would the money go? Indiana, Texas, or even Mexico?

To do the work we do at DP&L we must attend classes to be certified as scaffold builders. Is the same true for the out of state workers who are now taking the jobs we have committed our lives and livelihoods to? We only hope that DP&L is not sacrificing quality work and safety, for cheaper out of state labor. Concerning our local economy and the quality of work done at our local power plants, I would hope that we would keep our local jobs in the hands of our local skilled laborers.

Kamiakin Richards

Blue Creek