Once considered to be the Gambling Mecca (…of sorts) of the East Coast, the Trump Taj Mahal will be closing its doors just after Labor Day, according to multiple reports. The three hotel casinos were essentially in direct competition with each other but all owned by the same company. One of his biggest challenges came from the Local 54 chapter of the Unite-Here union who were demanding better benefits and healthcare plans.
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ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) – Donald Trump has been gone from Atlantic City for years, but his name has lived on in glowing neon on the facade of a casino he no longer owned. The managing company agreed to restore the perks, but the offer was much worse than other casino workers in Atlantic City receive, and was rejected by the union.
The strike, composed of more than 1,000 resort workers, is one of the longest strikes in Atlantic City’s 38-year casino history.
How petty. I would never have thought Carl Icahn was so one-dimensional.
Trump Taj Mahal casino employees will now be without a job after Labor day and may struggle to find employment in the remaining seven Atlantic City’s casinos. A workers’ strike that has been going on for over a month now seems to finally have broken the business for good. Icahn has defended his position, saying that concessions were needed to make the Taj financially stable.
Tropicana Entertainment is sending mass layoff notices this week.
Atlantic City used to be the only gambling centre on the U.S. east coast, but is now struggling with competition from casinos in neighbouring states. Local 54 halted efforts to save the Taj, he added.
Tropicana Entertainment President Tony Rodio said about Trump Taj Mahal they could no longer operate a money-losing property. It’s a classic take-the-money-and-run: Icahn takes hundreds of millions of dollars out of Atlantic City and then announces he is closing up shop.
Strikers have been receiving support from a union strike fund, and some have qualified for government food assistance and have had payment plans arranged for them by utility providers.
Trump Taj and Local 54 negotiators haven’t held contract talks since June 30.
The casino’s workers, including housekeepers, bartenders and bellmen, have been on strike since July 1, demanding health insurance and pension benefits. This closure would leave Atlantic City with just seven casinos as the Trump Plaza, Revel, Atlantic Club and the Showboat casino all gone out of business during the last couple of years.
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Atlantic City’s casino industry produced annual revenue increases every year from when Resorts opened in 1978 until that peak in 2006, when neighboring NY and Pennsylvania joined a growing wave of northeastern states to get the gambling bug.
