UNITE-HERE Local 54 in Atlantic City did not violate
federal bankruptcy law by discouraging Trump Taj Mahal's events clients from
patronizing the bankrupt resort.
Trump Entertainment Resorts, Taj's corporate parent, said
emails and telephone calls the union made to the resort's clients violated the
core protection of the U.S. bankruptcy system - the "automatic stay,"
which generally bars groups from interfering with a bankrupt company's assets.
The company wanted compensation for purportedly lost
business; a court order barring the union from issuing similar messages; and an
order forcing the union to send a letter to Taj clients admitting that the
union's initial messages were misleading.
But U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross denied the request
Tuesday, finding that the communications, which were part of the union's larger
boycott campaign against the casino-hotel, are protected by federal law on
labor organizing.
"We knew...that Carl Icahn didn't have the legal
right to stop us from talking to Taj Mahal customers. We are grateful to the
numerous convention groups as well as individuals that have honored that
boycott and booked elsewhere in Atlantic City," Local 54 President Bob
McDevitt said in a statement.
Last week unionized Trump Taj Mahal employees voted by a
wide margin to authorize their negotiating committee to call a strike at Taj —
the first such vote in Atlantic City in more than a decade.
The union has been warring with Icahn — Taj’s chief
lender who is taking ownership of the Boardwalk property as it emerges from
Chapter 11 bankruptcy — over a decision by casino executives last year to end
pension and health insurance for about 1,100 unionized Taj workers.
Source: Press
of Atlantic City
No comments:
Post a Comment