It’s beginning to get routine, but workers from Atlantic City’s main casino union marched for a sixth time to protest the loss of health and pension benefits against Carl Icahn, who is acquiring the Trump Taj Mahal in the city.
The workers tried to hand delver a protest letter to Icahn, but were turned away.
The workers marched to the Tropicana casino resort, which Icahn owns and was believed to be staying at. Casino security allowed them to gather in a vestibule, but would not accept the letter, according to the Associated Press.
The letter protested the termination of health and pension coverage at the Taj Mahal, which Icahn is acquiring from bankruptcy court.
“They would not take the letter, but they did listen to us,” Valerie McMorris, a cocktail server at the Taj Mahal told the AP. “We want our benefits back.”
Icahn’s acquisition has been creating controversy and conflict with the union—Unite Here of Local 54—for months. The union is appealing a judge’s October decision that allowed Trump Entertainment—which owns the casino—to cancel the casino’s union contracts.
Icahn, who is funding the casino’s operations through bankruptcy proceedings, has said he will close the casino if the union wins its appeal.
Icahn told the AP he sympathizes with the workers.
“But no one can deny the Taj would be closed without my agreement to lend up to an additional $80 million,” he said. “Additionally, it’s a bald-faced lie to keep saying that I took away their health care. I am not, nor have I ever been, on the Taj Board or part of management. That being said, I have a simple question: Given that the Taj continues to lose money even without providing health care and with the new work rules, where is the money to restore health care and work rules supposed to come from?”
The letter, written on behalf of Taj Mahal and Tropicana workers, however, blamed Icahn, according to the AP.
“You took away our health care, our pension, our lunch breaks and everything else that made these decent jobs,” the letter says. “We want them back. You have more money than we do. But having more money does not give you the right to destroy our health, our livelihoods or our quality of life.”
