Trump Entertainment is taking steps to fend off a potential strike at Atlantic City’s Taj Mahal casino and has hired a staffing firm that will provide replacement workers “for several hundred jobs.”
The city’s main casino workers union—Local 54 of Unite Here—has voted to authorize a strike should it lose an appeal it has in federal court to restore health benefits to workers. The union appealed the ruling of a bankruptcy judge which allowed the casino to stop providing health and pension benefits to workers.
A “strike contingency plan has been implemented and will be fully deployed” casino officials said in a memo to Taj employees obtained by the Press of Atlantic City.
Trump Entertainment has also identified “a large number of applicants…from job fairs to fill required roles” and devised “a comprehensive plan to secure the property,” the memo says.
Billionaire Carl Icahn is taking over the property and has been in an intense fight with the union over benefits. He has said that is the union wins its appeal, he will close the casino.
