Carl Icahn said Friday that he hopes to keep Trump Taj
Mahal open for good, but “I’m going to save it on my terms.”
Those terms, for now, include sweeping labor changes that
have infuriated the resort’s main union, which has been warring with Icahn —
Taj’s main lender and de facto owner — over health and pension plans.
Bob McDevitt, president of Local 54 of UNITE-HERE, on
Thursday said Icahn bailed on a deal that would have brought labor peace to the
2,600-employee casino-hotel, which was slated to close today.
Icahn responded Thursday with a $20 million pledge to
keep Taj open during its Chapter 11 bankruptcy case.
On Friday he told The Press of Atlantic City he wants to
forge a deal with Local 54 and is willing to invest $100 million in Taj’s
bankrupt parent, Trump Entertainment Resorts. But the offer he was asked to
sign was “suicidal,” he said.
“I can’t sign a deal that is suicidal, and the deal with
the union is suicidal to the company,” he said. ”We’re getting rid of the
suffocating union deal.”
McDevitt could not be reached for comment Friday. But
he’s warned that the labor dispute at the Taj could engulf Tropicana Casino and
Resort, which Icahn owns.
“If I gotta take it to the Trop, I’ll take it to the
Trop,” McDevitt said from the Boardwalk in October, decrying a federal judge’s
ruling that the Taj could modify its labor contract to swap union pensions with
401(k) plans and union health insurance with Affordable Care Act coverage.
Icahn said Friday that in the near term, he’ll institute
those and other changes, which Trump Entertainment says will save the company
$14.6 million annually. Local 54 has said they amount to a large pay cut for
1,100 housekeepers, servers and other low-paid Taj employees.
The dispute is having reverberations in Trenton, where
Democratic lawmakers on Thursday postponed a plan to hold a final vote on a
five-bill package to address Atlantic City’s battered finances.
“Right now we’re at a standstill,” said Assemblyman Vince
Mazzeo, D-Atlantic, a sponsor of the proposed legislation.
Part of that plan, spearheaded by state Senate President
Stephen Sweeney, is to replace the current casino property-tax system with a
payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT, program in which Atlantic City casinos
would collectively pay $150 million annually for two years and $120 million
annually for the next 13 years.
The PILOT program aims to end the perennial casino
property-tax appeals that have dogged Atlantic City. It would also give big
property-tax breaks to Taj and other casinos.
Mazzeo said he’s tabled the legislation until January at
the earliest because he won’t support a tax break for Icahn unless the lender
forges a deal with Local 54.
“The problem is that right now the Taj Mahal employees
don’t have a contract,” Mazzeo said Friday. “Icahn is actually holding up
property-tax ... reform for the City of Atlantic City.”
Assemblyman Chris Brown, R-Atlantic, who this week
offered a competing plan aimed at stabilizing property taxes in Atlantic City,
says the PILOT program is “corporate welfare” doled out on the backs of
Atlantic County residents.
Icahn said Friday that his plan for the Taj doesn’t hinge
on help from the state.
“I’d love to have help from the government, and I think
the government should help Atlantic City,” he said. “But one of the lessons
I’ve learned over the years is not to count on anybody but yourself.”
Source: PressofAtlanticCity.com
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