Following the news that the Trump Taj Mahal casino will close its doors at the end of this summer, one Atlantic County lawmaker is laying the blame at owner Carl Icahn’s feet. The Taj Mahal will join Atlantic City casinos Showboat, Trump Plaza, the Atlantic Club, and the giant boondoggle Revel in closing its doors.
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“Carl Icahn has taken hundreds of millions of dollars out of Atlantic City over the past several years”, he said. “We want to make the Taj Mahal great again”.
The Trump Taj was the city’s highest grossing casino until 2003.
“The Taj is losing multi-millions a month, and now with this strike we see no path to profitability”, he reportedly said.
Around 1,000 housekeepers, servers, cooks, and bellmen working at the hotel and casino complex (excluding workers at the casino itself) have been picketing it since July 1, seeking restoration of the health benefits and pension plans they gave up in 2014 when the resort’s bankruptcy proceedings were initiated. Until that time, Trump had owned a 10 percent total stake in the hotel that still prominently features his name.
The casino was declared to be the “eighth wonder of the world” by the current Republican presidential nominee when he opened it in 1990, at a cost of $1 billion.
As the strikers continued to picket, workers were carrying out repairs to a Taj Mahal entrance facade further down the Boardwalk, leading some workers to question whether the casino really planned to shut down after all.
Icahn told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he has lost almost $100 million on the Taj Mahal over the past 18 months. Icahn also owns the Tropicana, which he also acquired out of bankruptcy. The money Icahn would have spent on workers’ health care and retirement, McDevitt said, was small compared to the amount he had promised to invest in the struggling city. These workers have been without healthcare for nearly 2 years because of this company, and now, 1/3 have no insurance and another 50% rely on taxpayer subsidized health care. So you decide to take your rally to Trenton in an effort to get a bill passed that would allow striking workers to collect unemployment if the strike lasts more than 30 days.
“We’re not out here as a union to destroy this place”, Baker said.
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When Trump Entertainment filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September 2014, it cited mounting debt and revenue losses stemming from increased competition from casinos in neighboring states.
