Thursday, October 23, 2014

Taj Mahal casino to stay open through November



On the heels of a judge voiding its union contract, Trump Entertainment has decided to keep the casino open throughout November — meaning 3,100 people will keep their jobs, at least for now. Here's more from the Associated Press who broke the story:


    "As of now we don't have any plan to close the Taj, but that could change next month," Robert Griffin, CEO of Trump Entertainment, told The Associated Press. "We still need our plan to be approved, and we need assistance from the state with no assurance we're going to get it.

    "We can't say we're not going to close the Taj before the end of the year," Griffin said. "But we can say it won't close in November."

The reason for making the announcement wasn't to ease employees' minds about whether or not they'll have a job at the end of the month, but instead to ensure customers that a Culture Club concert scheduled for Nov. 28 will happen as planned, the AP reported.

A federal bankruptcy judge voided the casino's union contract on Friday with Local 54 of the Unite-HERE union. That means the casino has emerged victorious on two high-priced sticking points — health care and pensions.

But analysts say that the voided contract still isn't enough to save the troubled resort.

"Will Trump Taj Mahal survive? No. They need an investment and they need to turn things around," Alan Woinski, chief executive of Gaming USA Corp. in Paramus, N.J., told PBJ.com last week. "They were down 20 percent last month, so this doesn't guarantee success but it helps … They definitely need the investment by Carl Icahn and get rid of everybody who runs that company."

The casino is hoping that Ichan will take control and pump $100 million into the facility.

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