The Republican nominee in the race for the presidency — who took his Atlantic City casinos four times — minced no words about the shutdown of the gaming hall of Monday.
It’s the fifth Atlantic City casino.
Trump said both sides should happen to be able to work out a deal. Local 54 of the Unite-HERE union went on strike after it couldn’t agree with Icahn on a fresh contract to restore pension benefits and health insurance that have been terminated in bankruptcy court.
Icahn determined on Aug. 3 to shut the casino, saying it lacked a “route to profitability.”
Now, Trump said, it is not too early.
“Once it closes, it is too expensive to ever reopen it,” he said.
Yet that choice is just what many striking workers, and the union’s president, Bob McDevitt suppose might occur.
McDevitt said “there is a strong chance” that Icahn will keep the casino shut over the winter while running renovations and capital improvements, then try to reopen it in the springtime as a nonunion facility. McDevitt said union job activities including effort and picketing would instantly restart if the Taj tries to reopen with no union contract.
Taj Mahal management and Icahn failed to respond to repeated requests for comment on their strategies. In August, only days after Icahn declared the closing strategies, work crews fixed parts of Boardwalk entry ways and the casino’s facade.
The closing of the straggly Boardwalk casino, with its towering domes, towers and minarets constructed to mimic the famous historic site that was Indian, cost almost 3,000 workers their jobs, bringing the total jobs lost by Atlantic City casino closes to 11,000 since 2014. Atlantic City has seven casinos.
A cocktail waiter at the casino since its opening, Tina Condos, appeared victorious despite the loss in her occupation.
“I expect it gives him pause before he attempts to come in and do this to anyone else. We feel like we triumphed here.”
Rose Hall, still another Day One worker, cleaned rooms.
“I gave most of my adult life for this position,” she said. “I ‘d to purchase health care out of my own pocket, and should youn’t believe that is pricey, you haven’t appeared.
She, also, has no regrets about the decision to go to recover the identical standard of living that workers at the other casinos of the town love.
“I am upset about what is occurred, but I am not unhappy about what we did,” she said. “I am at peace with myself.”
McDevitt said union members had what he termed “their Popeye second: ‘That Is all I can stands; I can not stands no more,'” he said.
Icahn discovered the $350 million he’d lost in the Taj Mahal was enough. It was then that he determined to shut, fearing he’d lose an additional $100 million.
“Like many of the workers at the Taj Mahal, I wish things had turned out otherwise.”