The Republican presidential nominee had not been involved in the management of the casino for years but his name remains on the facade of the boardwalk property, which is now owned by Trump’s friend and fellow billionaire Carl Icahn, the “Wall Street Journal” reported.
Advertisement
“Currently the Taj is losing multi-millions a month, and now with this strike, we see no path to profitability”, Tony Rodio, chief executive of Tropicana Entertainment, said on Wednesday, referring to a strike by its unionized workers.
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.
Trump Taj Mahal union workers in the Unite-HERE Local 54 coalition haven’t been on the job since July 1 when they walked out in protest of what they feel to be inadequate benefits. Icahn was the main lender to Trump Entertainment Resorts, which shut down Trump Plaza in September 2014.
The casino is not owned by Donald TrumpDonald TrumpSupreme Court justices face less stringent disclosure rules: analysis Libertarian VP candidate: Trump is “screw loose” Johnson: “My head’s been in the sand” on race MORE, but still bears the Trump name.
Donald Trump was the owner of three casinos in Atlantic City earlier, but from 2009 he had cut his ties with the city.
“I would never have thought Carl Icahn was so one-dimensional”, McDevitt said in a statement. A total of 3,000 jobs will be a lost as a result of labor dispute brought on by workers at the Taj. It blamed workers who went on strike July 1 to regain health benefits lost in its most recent bankruptcy.
Atlantic City, always a second-class citizen to Las Vegas, enjoyed a brief resurgence a decade ago, after the opening of the Borgata, an upscale competitor to the Taj, spurred new investment and interest.
“In the end he’ll have to live with what he’s done to working people in Atlantic City”.
Unite-HERE is making the case that Icahn and Trump share the same values when it comes to business.
The workers have been fighting to get back healthcare and pensions ever since, rejecting an offer worth roughly half of what the union’s members have at other Atlantic City casinos including the Taj Mahal’s sister casino, The Tropicana.
Advertisement
Icahn says the Taj Mahal is a business, not a charity, and his company’s board does not want to put good money after bad in a venture that loses millions of dollars a month. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2004.
