The owner of the Trump Taj Mahal has double downed on
accusations that the leader of the casino workers' union was the driver behind
the upcoming October closure in a statement that said UNITE HERE Local 54
stands to gain from the use of a union-run healthcare plan and its president
used "misleading propaganda" to try to force management to adopt it.
"Bob McDevitt and the Taj bargaining committee have
no one to blame but themselves for this sad outcome," said Tony Rodio,
president and CEO of Tropicana Entertainment Inc., which manages the Atlantic
City casino on behalf of Icahn Enterprises, on Monday. "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."
The union previously told the Philadelphia Business
Journal the last time the two sides came to the table to negotiate was in late
June, just before the round-the-clock strike began on July 1.
So on Monday, in an effort to change the Taj's current
path, the union presented management with a new contract proposal. From the
employees' perspective, the deal was a win-win since it came in at only $1.3
million more than Icahn's last offer and would restore their healthcare
benefits, which they lost in 2014 when then-owner and current GOP presidential
candidate Donald Trump brought the casino to bankruptcy court.
But Rodio says the union has it all wrong – from the
nature of the Monday meeting to the characterization of its previous healthcare
package offer.
“Local 54 leadership reached out to Taj Mahal management
to schedule an effects bargaining meeting, which we believed was to discuss
closing procedure. This was not a negotiating session," Rodio said.
The long-winded statement, which touted Icahn
Enterprises' "positive impact" on the casino and other industries
while casting McDevitt as a liar, also insisted management previously offered
"an excellent healthcare plan, which [McDevitt] himself had outlined and
told us would be acceptable" before it was rejected.
Diana Hussein, a Local 54 spokeswoman, said Wednesday the
new contract proposal still called for concessions from workers, and the
additional cost to the owner was made up almost entirely by the proposed
healthcare change.
"It doesn't sound like if it was a penny difference,
they would have accepted," she said. "It really made clear just how
serious they were about [avoiding] closing."
The union has consistently pointed to health benefits as
the sticking point in negotiations. And on Thursday, Rodio accused the union
and its leader of using healthcare as a bargaining chip because the UNITE
HERE-run plan "generates exorbitant profits for the union – profits that
McDevitt has become accustomed to."
"Unlike most healthcare plans negotiated by unions,
UniteHere demands that Atlantic City casinos pay over $10,000 per employee per
year to the union controlled healthcare fund which is well above the cost of
healthcare," Rodio said Thursday. "In fact, we have ascertained that
these excess funds have allowed the UniteHere healthcare fund to generate over
$250 million in net income for the union healthcare fund – without imparting
any benefit for the union membership."
But Hussein rebuffed his comments, saying: "It is
not a profitable scheme that we have going on. All the other casinos are under
it. ... Bob has nothing to gain from having our workers on that. Our union has
nothing to gain."
"Without health benefits, half of [the] workers at
the Trump Taj Mahal rely on taxpayer subsidized health insurance. A third have
no health insurance at all, putting them at risk of bankruptcy in the event of
an illness and forcing taxpayers to pay for visits to the emergency room,"
Local 54 said in a statement Monday.
Rodio doesn't deny those claims. Instead, he mentioned it
as a reasonable option for the casino workers last week – and detailed a $2,000
stipend made available to them through the Taj.
"Most of the Taj Local 54 employees and their
families qualify for substantial subsidies under the Affordable Care Act and
many qualify for free health insurance under New Jersey's CHIPS and Medicaid
programs," he said, "and the $2,000 extra payment each year goes a
long way toward paying for those subsidized premiums, deductibles and out of
pocket costs for employees who want to purchase insurance."
Hussein countered: “That is nothing, I think it is twice
that as a deductible."
"I don't know what we could have done, what we could
offer to them at this point that would prevent them from closing," she
said.
The Taj is scheduled for shutdown on Oct. 10. At least
3,000 workers are expected to lose their jobs when the casino closes.
Source: Philadelphia
Business Journal
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