Icahn wrote. The Taj Mahal was opened in 1990 by real estate developer and current Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. On Thursday, the strike will become the longest in the city’s 38-year casino era, eclipsing the 34-day walkout the union staged against seven casinos in 2004.
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And if the casino’s grand promises and easily foreseeable financial ruin were in line with Trump’s history, the union-busting closure fit in with charges levied at Carl Icahn in a recent report that his acquisitions of companies around the country had cost 35,000 jobs.
In a statement, Tony Rodio, president and chief executive of Tropicana Entertainment Inc, which is also controlled by Icahn, blamed striking workers for the demise of the Taj.
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Meanwhile, a footwear magnate and a racetrack operator are behind a new effort to persuade New Jersey voters to approve casinos in the northern part of the state. In October 2014, he got a federal judge’s approval to terminate workers’ health and pension benefits, despite pushback from politicians. Tropicana Entertainment is the company that operates the Taj.
“The great dealmaker would rather burn the Trump Taj Mahal down just so he can control the ashes”, McDevitt said in a statement. Trump Entertainment, which is owned by billion investor Carl Icahn’s Icahn Enterprises, owns the Trump Taj Mahal.
The Trump Taj Mahal casino is breathing last. The Taj Mahal will join Atlantic City casinos Showboat, Trump Plaza, the Atlantic Club, and the giant boondoggle Revel in closing its doors.
Local 54 has been on strike from July 1 with over 1,000 union members launching protests in front of the casino as well as Icahn’s office. That interest was wiped out in bankruptcy court when Icahn took over in March. But the union was unable to reach a new deal for the Trump Taj Mahal.
Donald Trump was the owner of three casinos in Atlantic City earlier, but from 2009 he had cut his ties with the city.
The potential turnaround for the casino was further thwarted when the almost 1,000 union workers went on strike on July 1 demanding certain benefits to be restored and better conditions.
The union rejected that offer.
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 casino-resort intends to file notices under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act with the state before “end of weekend”, Rodio said.
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Just when Atlantic City’s struggling casino industry started showing the tiniest signs of stabilization, news that one of its most iconic casinos would be closing its doors after more than a quarter of a century of operations emerged and spread like wildfire.
