16 January 2006
CPR Cutting 400 White-Collar Jobs
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CP Rail is trimming staff and costs.
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Canadian Pacific Railway plans to cut nearly 400 management and office support jobs, or 15 percent
of its white-collar positions, the Calgary-based company says.
CPR is cutting staff because its efficiency rating is far out of line with competitor Canadian National.
Most of the CPR cuts will come through attrition as some non-union managers accept buyout packages and others take early
retirement. Some of the jobs were cut last month; others will go this month or later this year.
These cuts include head office staff, who transferred to Calgary in 1996, when the office was moved from Montreal. There will be few
jobs lost in Ontario.
There will be another 140 jobs cut among the blue-collar trades. But a CPR spokesman told CBC News Online that these cuts
are part of the normal cyclical ebb and flow and will likely be replaced when business picks up.
CPR had an operating ratio or 77.4 percent in the third quarter, compared with CN's superior 63.3. The operating ratio is a key industry
measure of a railway's efficiency.
In addition, CPR cut its profit forecast last month after a major coal buyer cut its shipments.
The white-collar cuts represent about 2.5 percent of CPR's workforce of 16,400 employees. The railway chopped 820
positions between mid-2003 and late 2005, but it has added staff in some areas since then.
Montreal-based CN has 22,100 staff, but it is a much larger railway that goes across Canada and down the Mississippi to
the Gulf Coast.
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