May 11th, 2018 by WCBC Radio
WCBC News has learned that a number of CSX Employees…we're hearing 90…were walked off the property at the Cumberland operation of CSX at 3 PM today.
We have reached out to CSX for comment, but have not heard back from their media relations director. However, the Cumberland Times News is quoting railroad officials that about 100 jobs have been affected.
This is a developing story that has not been confirmed officially. We will continue to work the story.
Ironically, it was a year ago this month that WCBC received a photo that started a period of uncertainty regarding the CSX operation here. We obtained a photo showing the bowl part of the yard below the "hump," nearly empty. The now deceased CEO of CSX, Hunter Harrison, had been brought in by an investor group to implement his "precision railroading" concept which involved not utilizing humps, and instead putting trains together via flat track switching.
Harrison died in December, succeeded by protege James Foote, who said he would be continuing the work that Harrison had begun. The first quarter of 2018 has been relatively quiet on the local employment front, until we received the reports today.
For its part, CSX has been tight lipped, saying only that all of its operations were undergoing review by company officials. That statement, in and of itself, has been an ominous cloud hanging over the heads of local railroad families, many of which have had employees at CSX, and predecessors Chessie, B & O, and Western Maryland Railway, for generations.
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May 11, 2018 at 8:06 pm, Bernard Miltenberger said:
If true, it is a continued sad commentary on the deindustrialization of our area! Annapolis and our Republican Governor really hurt the energy sector of our economy last year by violating the property rights of landowners to their mineral rights and now this! This state is so unbusiness friendly to us here in Western Maryland, it no wonder so many good people have left!