Trump Taj Mahal Is Shutting Down

Striking workers blame owner Carl Icahn
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 4, 2016 1:23 AM CDT
Trump Taj Mahal Is Shutting Down
Striking union members rally outside the Trump Taj Mahal casino last month.   (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)

The Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City is closing down for good—two years after Donald Trump sued to get his name off the casino because its "appalling condition" was wrecking his brand. The casino is now owned by billionaire Carl Icahn and operated by his Tropicana Entertainment company, which says it will shut the place down after Labor Day weekend, reports Reuters. Around 1,100 of the casino's 2,100 workers have been on strike since July 1, and Tropicana CEO Tony Rodio blames their union, Unite Here, for the closure. In a statement, he said the casino is losing millions of dollars a month, and Icahn Enterprises "cannot just allow the Taj to continue burning through tens of millions of dollars when the union has single-handedly blocked any path to profitability."

The service workers were striking to restore the health insurance and pension benefits a bankruptcy judge stripped them of in 2014, reports the Press of Atlantic City, which notes that five other casinos in the city, including sister casino Trump Plaza, shut down the same year. Trump himself no longer had any stake in the casino, though Unite Here Local 54 President Bob McDevitt mentioned him in a statement that blamed the closing on Icahn, the Guardian reports. "These workers stood up for what every other casino worker doing their job in this town has, and what every other casino worker here has had since gaming was introduced to Atlantic City over three decades ago," McDevitt said. "If this is the guy Donald Trump wants to be treasury secretary of the United States, then this country is doomed." (More Trump Taj Mahal stories.)

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