Canada’s second-largest railway rolls out aggressive restructuring plan
Posted Dec 5, 2012 7:40 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Calgary-based Canadian Pacific Rail says it plans to eliminate 4,500 jobs, or about a quarter of its workforce, by 2016.
About 1,700 of those jobs will be gone by the end of the year.
CEO Hunter Harrison says fortunately, the company has a high attrition rate of about nine per cent, due mostly to an older workforce.
Harrison was installed as CEO earlier this year following a bitter proxy fight with the company’s largest shareholder.
CP Rail is fielding questions Wednesday about its restructuring plan in New York City.
As with any massive business re-organization, the goal is to reduce the company’s operating cost while improving efficiency, and in turn improve the firm’s bottom line.
At this point, there is no breakdown on where the job cuts will occur.
Not too long ago, CP Rail announced it was relocating its head office from downtown Calgary to the Ogden rail yards in the southeast; a move that will save the company as much as $18-million annually.
CP is also looking at possibly selling some of its real estate holdings.
