More Layoffs at CSX Brings Total Dismissals to 1,000, as Originally Projected
Jacksonville, Fla.-based CSX Corp. finalized the company’s layoffs April 25 with the termination of 200 workers, bringing the complete tally of layoffs to 1,000, which the company originally projected in February.
The workers were given notice April 25 at the Jacksonville headquarter operations and other field locations of the company. It brings an end to an awkward layoff process over the past two turbulent months for the railway giant.
“CSX has now separated 1,000 individuals, which completes the downsizing program announced on February 21 that was substantially completed in early March. No further actions under that program are anticipated and we thank those employees for their important contributions,” said CSX spokesman Rob Doolittle in an e-mail statement sent to the Times-Union on April 25.
In March, the company confirmed the layoffs of 800 people were enacted, though company officials said then it was less than the original projection of 1,000 layoffs. The layoffs April 25 brings that number to a total of 1,000, the original target number for the layoffs.
“We should have said in March that the program was substantially [not totally] completed,” Doolittle said, adding all positions being laid off are on the management level.
March was when the company named Hunter Harrison as its new CEO. That followed the Feb. 21 retirements of CEO and Chairman Michael Ward and President Clarence Gooden. Company officials said the layoffs were in the works long before the top executive shuffle.
CSX then agreed to pay Harrison a $2.2 million salary, offer a target bonus of $2.8 million and tentatively agreed to reimburse $84 million that Harrison forfeited when he retired early from Canadian Pacific railroad in January.
On June 5, the company’s shareholders will vote on the $84 million at the annual meeting. The railroad also agreed to give Harrison options on 9 million shares of CSX stock.
Harrison has told the company that he will resign his position if the entire package is not approved.
He also has invested more than $15 million in the railroad’s stock.
Harrison said in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 25 that he bought 300,000 shares of CSX stock on April 24.
Harrison was hired in March after the Mantle Ridge hedge fund pressured the railroad to improve operations. Harrison has a record of reducing costs and boosting profits through the scheduled operating model he used successfully at Canadian Pacific and Canadian National.
The railroad expects Harrison to hold CSX stock worth at least six times his base salary of $2.2 million.
CSX operates more than 21,000 miles of track in 23 Eastern states and two Canadian provinces.
