Billionaire and owner of the Trump Taj Mahal casino, Carl Icahn had announced
earlier this month that he intended to shut down the troubled Trump Taj Mahal
casino on October 10 as a result of the casino continually losing money and the
prolonged disputes the casino was having with the UNITE HERE Local 54 union.
The UNITE HERE Local 54 led by President Bob McDevitt had
launched an on-going strike from July 1 after the union and the Trump Taj Mahal
management were unable to reach a mutual decision on the
healthcare coverage and benefits that casino employees were expecting. The
closure of the Trump Taj Mahal casino will leave close to three thousand
employees out of work and current market conditions in Atlantic City will make it very hard for all of
them to find employment within the struggling casino industry.
The Union had tried to re-negotiate with the
Trump Taj Mahal casino to see if they can finally work out a deal and call off
the strike. The union has proposed during recent negotiations that they are
willing to call off the strike, if they are paid an additional $1.3 million
over the last proposal that the Trump Taj Mahal offered. The new proposal
wants the Trump Taj Mahal casino to restore paid breaks immediately; pay same
healthcare benefits as the rest of the workers in the city effective January 1,
2017; return the housekeepers workload to industry standards immediately;
restore subcontracting protections for workers immediately and implement the
Tropicana contract from September 1, 2017.
The casino is estimated to have lost more than $150
million as a result of the labor dispute, which the union calls a “vendetta”.
The union believes that this proposal gives the casino sufficient time to
rebuild its business while compensating the workers for the money they have
lost. However, Icahn and the Tropicana management which runs operations at the
Trump Taj Mahal stated that there would be no more negotiations and that the
casino would shut down as planned.
In a statement, Tony Rodio, president of the
Tropicana casino said “This was not a negotiating session. As previously
announced, the Taj Mahal will close its doors on October 10, 2016. Bob McDevitt
and the Taj bargaining committee have no one to blame but themselves for this
sad outcome. If McDevitt cared even one iota about the future of the employees
he would have allowed them to vote on the proposal we offered five weeks ago
based on his recommendations, which we believe could have saved the Taj. But in
the end he blindsided us and the employees because closing the Taj served his
personal purposes”.
Icahn has wanted employees of the Trump Taj Mahal to sacrifice their health benefits in order to turn
things around at the casino. Many Taj Mahal employees have been forced to
depend on subsidized taxpayers health insurance, while some have relied on
public assistance programs such as food stamps. Employees have witnessed an
increase of around $0.80 in raises over the last decade. Carl Icahn is yet
to file a petition with New Jersey gaming regulators to get the required permission
to close down the casino.
Source: World
Casino Directory
No comments:
Post a Comment