Icahn wrote a letter to Trump Taj Mahal’s employees
The billionaire accused the union of inciting the casino workers to destroy their own jobs by participating in the longest strike in Atlantic City history.
US.- Trump Taj Mahal casino owner Carl Icahn, wrote a letter to the soon-to-be unemployed employees of the casino, accusing their union of inciting them to destroy their own jobs by participating in the longest strike by Atlantic City’s main casino workers union.
The union started a walkout on July 1 demanding the restoration of health insurance and pension benefits that the previous owners got a bankruptcy court judge to terminate in October 2014.
According to Icahn, officials of Local 54 of the Unite-HERE union knew that the company had made its final offer, but rejected it anyway. The company’s final offer to Trump Taj Mahal employees to restore health care at a lower level than what workers at Atlantic City’s other seven casinos, was negotiated with union president Bob McDevitt.
“Why have they incited you, the union workers at the Taj, to destroy your jobs and your livelihood rather than accept the prior offer that we made at McDevitt’s suggestion?” Icahn wrote. “It is one thing to fund losses when a path to profitability exists. But to burn tens of millions of dollars when there is no hope is just foolish. The strike has been the latest and final nail.”
Icahn declared that he has lost nearly US$100 million on the Taj Mahal over the past 18 months. McDevitt claims Icahn helped bleed the casino dry as its main lender before and during its most recent stay in bankruptcy. Nearly 3,000 workers will lose their jobs and this closure will be the fifth in Atlantic City in two years.
