Layoffs expected for the railroad (Not just GM)

With the disclosure of the plant closings and layoffs at General Motors, layoffs could be on the horizion for CSX. This sentiment was being spoken throughout the crew room today as new came of GM's downsizing and plant closures.

If your still not getting why? Let me put it this way.....

From Yahoo News: Plants marked for closure include those in Doraville, Georgia, Ontario, Canada, Portland, Oregon and Pittsburgh, an Oklahoma City plant that makes mid-size sport utility vehicles and GM's Lansing, Michigan Craft Center, which makes a poor-selling sport pickup truck.

• If there are less cars to transport, there will be less need for moving auto-racks.
• Fewer auto-racks, means fewer trains needed.
• Fewer trains means fewer need for the current amount of yard jobs to shuffle cars around the yard to build said trains,
• Fewer trains and yard jobs mean fewer open positions for Engineers and Conductors,
• Fewer Conductors and Engineers needed mean layoffs,
• Layoffs mean we find other jobs,

This is more impactful than anyone can imagine. I could go on and on with how this will effect the country.

Personally, I have been "down sized" twice before. One was with the Navy when they "disestablished" my rating (or job classification). The second was when Compaq and HP merged and I was part of a forced downsizing. Those jobs impacted about 10,000 people in Cincinnati alone. Now this. I have got to get a government job if I am going to retire in one piece.

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