Majority of cuts to occur in Florida

OMAHA, NEBRASKA — CSX has announced that two executives will retire this spring, and the railroad plans to lay off roughly 1,000 management employees next month.

CSX Corp. announced both moves Tuesday as the railroad faces pressure from a hedge fund seeking to install the executive who led Canadian Pacific’s turnaround, Hunter Harrison.

CSX spokesman Gary Sease said the majority of the employees affected by the layoffs will be in the Jacksonville, Florida area, across multiple locations.

“But affected employees also are in our field organization,” Sease said, when asked if the layoffs could affect CSX’s facilities in the Tri-State, located at Russell, Kentucky and Huntington, West Virginia. “We will not know who will be impacted until evaluations of both our headquarters and field locations is complete. (On Tuesday,)” CSX announced to its employees the reduction of 1,000 management employees through an involuntary separation program, which will be completed by mid to late March. Enhanced separation benefits are being extended to those impacted employees.”

Sease said, in total, CSX has approximately 4,500 management employees, with about 2,000 in field locations.

CSX Chairman and CEO Michael Ward and President Clarence Gooden will both retire at the end of May. Previously, Ward had planned to work through 2019.

CSX promoted its head of sales and marketing, Fredrik Eliasson, to president. The company says that shouldn’t pre-empt discussions with Paul Hilal’s Mantle Ridge hedge fund about Harrison becoming CSX’s next CEO.

A CSX spokesman says severance packages will be offered to laid-off employees. Most of the jobs being eliminated are in Jacksonville, Florida.

— The Associated Press contributed to this report