CSX to Lay Off Most Union Rail Employees at Waterville Facility
CSX Transportation workers at the Waterville Engine House and Back Shop.
The rail company CSX Transportation has announced that it is laying off 21 union workers across several crafts at its mechanical repair facility in Waterville. The company is moving work from Waterville to Cumberland, MD and Selkirk, NY, effective March 1st. Impacted workers include members of IAM Local 318, SMART-Mechanical, SMART-Transportation, the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen, and IBEW at the Waterville Engine House and Back Shop. The majority of the laid off employees are members of the IAM Union. The company began furloughing employees last year and recently laid off about 5 percent of its non-union workforce to boost profits for shareholders. CSX operations run from Maine to Florida. Just five machinists and four electricians will remain on the site after March 1.
“This is about pure greed,” said Josh Hartford, Special Assistant to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers President, Rail Division. “It’s a tough blow and it was definitely unexpected because these guys had consistently heard from CSX that they did great work. They were filling a void that CSX couldn't do, but then they just came in one day unannounced and informed them that they were being laid off,” continued Hartford.
In 2022, CSX purchased Maine’s largest rail operator Pan Am Railways, extending its reach into Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. At the time, workers hoped conditions would improve because CSX had more capital to make improvements to the rail network. Prior to CSX officially taking over, Pan Am had refused to hire anyone in the mechanical department. CSX workers and other railway workers across the nation nearly went on strike in 2022 due to overwork, lack of sick days and safety concerns.
In September, 2022, CSX brought in former Ford executive Joseph R. Hinrichs as a CEO to improve the employer-employee relationship. In 2023, the company announced that it would provide four days of paid sick leave annually, plus the option of converting three personal days into additional paid sick time. Hinrichs was very popular with employees, but activist investor Ancora Holdings was pressuring the company to oust Hinrichs because it didn't believe he was doing enough to boost shareholder returns. In a surprising move, the CSX Board of Directors fired Hinrichs in late September and replaced him with Steve Angel, who pledged to focus on putting more money back into shareholder profits.
About 90 percent of workers have less than 20 months before retirement and two of the workers have less than a year to reach retirement. The ultimate goal for rail road employees is to get in their 30 years so they can retire at 60. Workers will have to either uproot their families to New York or Maryland to finish out their last few months of employment or take the severance package and take a 30 percent pension penalty. IAM 318 Chairman Patrick Morse said that two of his members will be taking the offer to transfer to another facility while the rest will have to find new careers.
“A lot of the gentlemen that work here are all over 50, 55 years old, so for them to change careers at 55 years old isn't really an option for these guys,” said Morse. “There's no reason why they should be cutting workers when they're still making billions in profits. That doesn't make any sense.”
While CSX claims it’s too expensive to ship parts to Maine, they didn't have parts shipped to Maine before it was bought out.
“We did all of own air brake stuff, all of our own traction motor rebuilds, all of our own engine rebuilds. Everything was done in-house,” said Morse. “When CSX bought us, they shut that all down and started buying parts and shipping them up here. And now they're saying it's too expensive to keep us going. But they did it to themselves because we've been self-sufficient for years.”
Morse said that the most heartbreaking part of getting the news is that the historic rail shop has been there since the late 1800s and will likely shut completely down within a couple of years. It was once the Maine Central Railroad’s chief location for heavy repairs to locomotives and passenger and freight cars. Locomotives were completely stripped and rebuilt in the large erecting area next to the machine shop and blacksmith shop. Union trades represented included blacksmiths, boilermakers, carpenters, carmen, electricians, helpers, laborers, machinists, painters, and upholsterers. By the time of the great Maine Central Waterville Shops Strike of 1922 it employed between 500 and 600 workers.