While Atlantic City workers striking at the Trump Taj Mahal brought their protest to New York, billionaire Carl Icahn—who owns the property despite the Trump name—issued an ultimatum to the city’s main casino workers union.
Either accept our proposal for healthcare or it will be withdrawn.
UNITE HERE of Local 54, the city’s main casino workers union, protested last week outside the Manhattan offices of Donald Trump, presumably to draw on publicity surrounding the likely Republican presidential nominee. However, Trump divested himself of any controlling interest in the property in 2009. The union also picketed Icahn’s New York offices.
During the protests, however, Icahn’s management team issued the ultimatum. The company gave the union until Monday, July 18 to accept the offer.
The casino has remained open during the strike, but Icahn has warned repeatedly that without healthcare concessions from the union, he is ready to close the property. Those threats date back more than a year to when a bankruptcy judge allowed then owner Trump Entertainment to cancel healthcare and pension benefits for workers. The union appealed the decision, but eventually lost in court.
Union members at the rallies accused both Trump and Icahn of harming the casino, which Trump opened in 1990.
“Both Trump and Icahn took lots of money out of this property, millions of dollars that could have been used to rebuild it and provide good wages and benefits for workers,” union spokesman Ben Begleiter told the Associated Press. “Now Trump thinks Icahn should be running America’s economy. If that happens, then all of America’s workers are in trouble.”
Trump has said Icahn would make a good treasury secretary. Icahn said last August that he would accept the job, but later said he had no interest in it, according to the AP.
The ultimatum came in a letter from Tony Rodio, president of Tropicana Entertainment, warning that the company’s healthcare offer expires Monday at 5 p.m. Rodio told the AP that the company offered to fund the union’s health plan at the Taj Mahal, but not to the level that other casinos do.
Rodio also called the Taj Mahal as “a money pit” that is losing millions of dollars in the letter and urged workers to consider the $86 million Icahn has invested to keep the casino open since it declared bankruptcy in September 2014.
“The company offered to fund a health insurance plan that was offered by UNITE HERE but was not quite as rich as the plan at the other AC casinos,” he said. “But it did provide medical insurance for all union members and their families. In addition, the Taj Mahal would have extended health insurance to all non-union members, as well. This one concession would have cost the company multiple millions of dollars.”
The company also offered to reduce the number of rooms that each housekeeper is required to clean each shift from 16 to 14 to bring them in line with staff at other Atlantic City casinos.
Rodio also told the new service that the proposed deal “was for a mere 18 months which would have given the property time to turn things around and return to profitability.” He also said the property will reopen previously closed outlets and rooms, which creates additional work and jobs for union members.
However, the union points to the fact that the company recently settled its contract for the Tropicana Atlantic City—which is also owned by Icahn—with full health benefits and can’t understand why it won’t make the same deal at the Taj Mahal.
“This company offered them health insurance that was essentially half of what every other property agreed to, including the Taj’s sister casino,” McDevitt said. “These workers want to know why it is OK for Trop workers to be able to go to the doctor, but not them?”
The Taj has begun to run ads seeking employees, presumably to replace the striking workers.
“From exciting opportunities in hotel operations, food and beverage, marketing and customer service positions to the hot action of casino floor jobs, an ocean of opportunity awaits you at Trump,” the ad read.
Meanwhile, the union ratified new contracts with three city casinos—all owned by Caesars Entertainment—which the union described as one of the best in its history. The contracts received 98 percent of member’s votes.
The contracts are valued $44 million and are “one of the best in the union’s history,” according to the union’s Facebook page.
Workers had sought to restore a week or more of paid vacation relinquished in 2011; a wage increase of $3 per hour, to be phased in by 60-cent increments over five years; and employer contributions to the union’s health fund sufficient to keep benefits at current levels, according to the Press of Atlantic City.
