CSX Corp. said Tuesday it will cut 1,000 management jobs, primarily in Jacksonville, by late March.
Spokesman Gary Sease said the Jacksonville-based company announced the cuts Tuesday morning to employees. It is an involuntary separation program.
He said enhanced separation benefits are being extended to the workers affected.
Sease said a majority of the employees being let go are in Jacksonville across multiple locations and subsidiaries, but some affected management employees also are in the transportation company’s field organization.
“However, until further study and evaluation, we will not have specific impacts on local and field organizations,” he said.
Sease said there are more than 2,500 management employees in Jacksonville.
The job cuts coincide with CSX’s announcement Tuesday morning that Chairman and CEO Michael Ward and President Clarence Gooden will retire effective May 31.
Executive Vice President Fredrik Eliasson was promoted to president, but no CEO was named.
Former Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. CEO Hunter Harrison has been negotiating with CSX’s board of directors to possibly become chief executive.