ATLANTIC CITY - Atlantic City's main casino workers'
union is ramping up its threat of a strike against the Trump Taj Mahal casino.
Local 54 of the Unite Here union said it will load a
storage trailer on Tuesday with supplies it would need for a strike against the
casino.
The pod will contain water coolers, T-shirts, ponchos,
cots, wheelchairs, garbage cans, bullhorns, batteries, tents, tables and
chairs, radios, musical instruments, marching band drums, the inflatable rat,
and generators.
The union also will begin training workers as
"strike captains" to organize picketing.
It seeks the restoration of health insurance and pension
coverage that the casino got permission from a bankruptcy judge to eliminate last
October.
The union has already authorized a strike against the Taj
Mahal.
A strike would target only the Taj. The last time the
union went on strike was in 2004, when it targeted seven of the then-12 casinos
in Atlantic City for a month. Before that, it staged a three-day walkout in
1999.
Trump Entertainment Resorts says it has a plan to remain
open during a possible strike, but won't detail the preparations it has made.
The company is being acquired by billionaire Carl Icahn, who has criticized the
union's health care plan as unaffordable.
Both sides are waiting for an appeals court ruling on
whether the union members' benefits should be restored. If they are, Icahn has
vowed to cut off financial support for the Taj and force it to close.
Source: Philly.com
No comments:
Post a Comment