by Timothy J. Gibbons
CSX Corp. is eliminating about 10 percent of its dispatcher jobs in
Jacksonville,FL and moving the positions to other locations, the company
told the dispatchers’ union Monday.
Although several employees have said they fear the moves are the
beginning of widespread cuts in the ranks of the 340 dispatchers who
work here, CSX officials have said there are no plans to further scale
back the workforce.
The announcement of job cuts comes on the heels of union members telling
the company they are considering going on strike because of concerns
about new dispatching software that has proven difficult to use,
according to two union members who asked not to be named because of
concerns about their jobs.
The first round of cuts will come toward the end of January: 20
dispatchers positions in Jacksonville, FL will be cut, with 15 of those
jobs moving to CSX’s dispatch operation center in Chicago, IL. The other
five workers will be absorbed into other jobs in the company. According
to the union and the company, CSX then plans on cutting another 15 jobs
here in order to move them to Indianapolis, IN.
The positions being eliminated here handled trains traveling near
Chicago, IL and the Great Lakes region.
CSX has four dispatch centers responsible for routing trains along its
21,000 miles of track. The vast majority of dispatchers have been
concentrated in Jacksonville, FL since 1988, when the company
established a centralized operating facility that oversees the entire
network.
Twenty-five dispatchers now work in Chicago, IL, as well as 340 in
Jacksonville, FL, 80 in Albany, NY, and 65 in Indianapolis, IN.
Moving jobs from Jacksonville, FL to the other centers is necessary
because of operational need s, said CSX spokesman Gary Sease.
Despite employee fears, Sease sai