Atlantic City will have seven casinos after the Taj Mahal closes.
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In emerging from bankruptcy, the company stripped unions of their health insurance and pension benefits; the company’s last offer before the strike included restoring some health insurance and reducing the number of rooms per shift per cleaner from 16 to 14.
“Currently the Taj is losing multi-millions a month, and now with this strike, we see no path to profitability”, said Tony Rodio, president and CEO of Tropicana Entertainment Inc., which manages the casino, according to the Associated Press.
Icahn’s company announced Wednesday it will shut the Taj Mahal down after Labor Day weekend, but an exact shutdown date has not yet been set.
The closure of the Taj comes as about 1,000 Local 54-represented cooks, housekeepers, bellmen and servers at the Taj have been on strike since June 1.
Union chief Bob McDevitt criticized Mr. Icahn in a statement, likening the billionaire investor to a “playground bully” who would rather pick up his ball and go home than trying to reach an agreement with the casino’s workers.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump opened the Taj in 1990.
As three casinos closed in the city at the end of the summer two years ago, Trump tweeted, “I have nothing to do with Atlantic City-sold years ago (great timing)”.
Icahn told The Associated Press Wednesday he has lost almost $100 million on the Taj Mahal in the past 18 months, including money he spent to keep it afloat during bankruptcy court before he even owned it.
A northern New Jersey man is heading to prison after admitting to following five women and robbing them at gunpoint in their Atlantic City hotel room.
At an average wage of less than $12 an hour, the Trump Taj Mahal workers are among the lowest-paid in Atlantic City, having lost their health-care benefits as well as other labor contract protections in bankruptcy.
Tropicana Entertainment acts as the management company for the Taj. We have said from the outset that the Taj would never be profitable unless it partnered with the union.
The losses, in part, have been tied to mounting competition from gambling venues opened in neighboring states such as Pennsylvania and Maryland.
“Furthermore, today’s actions only further prove to voters why we need to continue to vigorously fight the referendum to expand casino gaming to North Jersey”, Mazzeo continued, “an effort that would put thousands more of Atlantic County’s hard-working middle-class families on the unemployment line”.
Taj Mahal’s rocky start has been referenced in presidential debates and other political talk all year.
The casino, the last of the Atlantic City casinos bearing Trump’s name, will close around the first week of September.
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Trump filed for bankruptcy on the Taj Mahal in 1991 and the Trump Castle Associates in 1992.
