In a letter to the casino’s soon-to-be unemployed workers on Thursday, billionair investor Carl Icahn accused their union of inciting them to destroy their own jobs by participating in the longest strike by Atlantic City’s main casino workers union. Earlier this summer, the casino workers’ union reached new labor contracts with four other casinos, three owned by Caesars Entertainment Corp., as well as Mr. Icahn’s Tropicana. He still might have invested the $100 million to renovate the Taj, but when plans were drawn up in the state legislature to possibly permit the erection of two casinos in northern New Jersey, Icahn balked. In a statement union President Bob McDevitt called Icahn’s decision to shutter the Taj “petty” and that Carl Icahn, who owns the casino, was needlessly “burning down” the casino. With no end in sight to the strike, president and CEO of Tropicana Entertainment Anthony Rodio believes there is no “path to profitability”, and that due to the casino bleeding millions of dollars a month the closure is necessary to meet “fiduciary duties to their shareholders”.
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The Trump Taj Mahal is expected to shut down after ongoing strikes by over 1,000 of its workers have caused the struggling casino to cut its losses. Trump had not been actively involved in the operation of the Trump Taj Mahal since 2009.
While the Trump Taj Mahal did not become the fifth Atlantic City casino to close in 2014, it did seem like today’s news was inevitable. Last October, a federal judge agreed that as part of the casino’s bankruptcy process, the union could stop making health care and pension payments to workers.
The Taj Mahal shutdown will reduce the number of casinos in Atlantic City to seven while cutting 3,000 jobs. Having lost ownership of the company to bondholders in a previous bankruptcy, Trump resigned as chairman of Trump Entertainment Resorts, retaining a 10 percent stake in return for the use of his name.
On August 1, a public affairs company which releases union information to the press stated in an email, “As the sole debtholder between 2010 and 2014, Icahn extracted $350 million from the property, driving it into bankruptcy and then swooping in to take control”.
The labour strife at the casino was stirred by the last in a series of bankruptcies for Trump’s former gambling empire. Unions have rejected an offer to restore health insurance at a level less than that of employees at the city’s other casinos. “Although these are still tough economic times, Atlantic City has been resilient for over 160 years and we will continue to do so, as we rise to meet any challenge ahead of us”. I give hundreds of millions to charity, but this is a business; it’s not a charity. Thank God there are working people who will stand up to him.
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An exact shutdown date for the Taj Mahal has not yet been set. Once the Taj Mahal officially shutters its doors for the final time, the total amount of jobs lost in AC since 2014 will reach nearly 8,000 since the closure of the Showboat, Atlantic Club and Revel Casinos.
