Carl Icahn blinked in his showdown with Unite Here Local
54 over the threatened closure of Atlantic City's Trump Taj Mahal last month,
but new bankruptcy court documents show that the billionaire investor is
holding to key demands.
Instead of closing the casino, Icahn agreed to provide up
to an additional $15 million in loans to keep the Taj Mahal open through
bankruptcy.
Still, the latest version of Trump Entertainment Resorts
Inc.'s bankruptcy plan, filed Monday in Wilmington, says the company will not emerge
from bankruptcy unless potential union pension liabilities are kept to a level
that Icahn accepts.
Unite Here's National Retirement Fund in November filed a
$197 million claim against the Trump bankruptcy estate.
Another condition of Trump Entertainment's emergence from
bankruptcy is the entering of a final order by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin
Gross allowing it to reject its contract with Unite Here Local 54 workers at
the Taj Mahal.
Unite Here represented 1,136 of the Taj Mahal's nearly
3,000 employees at the time of Trump Entertainment's Chapter 11 bankruptcy
filing in September, according to court documents.
Gross found in favor of Trump Entertainment in October,
allowing the company to reject the contract, but an appeal is pending in the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia.
If the union were to win its appeal, Icahn wants to
reserve the right to return to court to undo the bankruptcy settlement.
The latest bankruptcy proposal contemplates a
confirmation of the bankruptcy by March 13.
Icahn controls the fate of Trump Entertainment because
the company owes him about $290 million in first-lien debt.
Source: Philly.com
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