Atlantic City’s Trump Taj Mahal casino remains embroiled in a union strike even as its sister casino in the city—the Tropicana—has settled a contract with the city’s main casino union.
Now entering its fourth week, about 1,000 workers with the city’s main casino union—Unite Here of Local 54—continue to picket the property and scheduled a large-scale rally late last week.
The union represents a variety of casino workers from housekeeping to bartenders, but does not represent dealers and casino floor workers. The casino has stayed open throughout the work stoppage.
The main sticking point remains health insurance for workers. Last year, a bankruptcy judge allowed the casino—then controlled by Trump Entertainment—could cancel health insurance for all workers. The casino instead offered a stipend for workers to seek coverage under the Affordable Care Act. The Union appealed the ruling, but it was upheld by the courts.
Casino officials said they did make a temporary offer to the casino to partially fund the union’s healthcare fund, but that offer has been withdrawn after the union called it inadequate and refused to put the measure to a vote by union members.
Union president Bob McDevitt told the Associated Press that the offer was “essentially half” of what workers at other casinos received.
“Regrettably, the union failed to put the offer to a vote by its Taj Mahal membership and therefore as we indicated last week, the offer has been permanently withdrawn,” said Tony Rodio, head of Tropicana Entertainment Inc. in a press release.
The union, however, points out that it has now settled new contracts with four of the city’s eight casino, including the Tropicana. In those negotiations, the union has sought to restore some of the concessions it made to casinos when the city’s casino industry started to retract in the face of competition form out of state casinos, but terms have not been disclosed. The union voted to ratify the new contract with Tropicana earlier this month.
McDevitt has said that Taj workers don’t understand why Tropicana employees should have better healthcare than them.
“The company continually holds up the Trop as an example of a property that was doing poorly and is now doing well. At no point did the Tropicana propose eliminating health benefits for its workers,” McDevitt said in a statement. “Can you imagine what it is like to work in this city—to spend your days doing the backbreaking work of cleaning hotel rooms or walking all over the casino floor serving drinks in high heels—without health insurance?”
McDevitt said a third of the workers at the Taj Mahal have no insurance and half rely on taxpayer-subsidized health care. Part of the reason that the property continues to do poorly is because of how it has treated its workforce,” he said.
The Taj Mahal has been the city’s weakest performing casino for well over a year, including during a lengthy bankruptcy proceeding that ended when Icahn acquired the property—Icahn had held the bulk of the casino’s debt.
Ever since the bankruptcy judge ruled against the worker’s healthcare, Icahn and the union have been in a sharp battle of words, with Icahn saying he needs the healthcare concession to keep the casino open. On July 1, however, the union called for a strike.
Rodio previously told the AP that the Taj Mahal offered to fund the union’s health plan, just not to the level that other casinos do. He said it would have provided medical insurance for all union members and their families.
After union workers protested last week outside of Icahn’s office in New York, Rodio referred to the Taj Mahal as “a money pit” that is losing millions of dollars, and urged individual workers to consider the $86 million Icahn has invested to keep the casino open since it declared bankruptcy in September 2014, according to the news service.
