Taj Mahal could close on December 12

The union is appealing a bankruptcy court order that terminated the union contract, canceling health insurance and pension coverage. If the appeal isn’t withdrawn by the end of the month, the casino will close and its 3,000 jobs will be lost, Griffin said.

The notice to state regulators follows a letter the company sent Monday to its employees urging them to pressure the union to drop the appeal. In it, Griffin described the company as “a very sick patient lying on his death bed.” It came on the day the company originally had planned to close the Taj Mahal before extending its deadline by a month.

The company said relief from health insurance and pension costs, which a bankruptcy court judge in Delaware granted Oct. 17, is essential to keeping the casino open. It described its appeal to the union as a “last ditch” effort to keep the casino open. Trump Entertainment has committed to keeping the Taj Mahal open only through the end of November.

The company is pursuing a complicated plan to save the casino by transferring ownership to billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who would pump USD 100 million into it. That investment is contingent on getting city or state officials to sign off on $175 million in assistance. New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney and Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian have rejected that request, and Gov. Chris Christie was decidedly cool to it at a forum on the city’s future Wednesday.

Trump Entertainment is offering union workers a stipend to help them find health insurance through government-run exchanges under the federal health care law.

Union president Bob McDevitt said Icahn can well afford to keep the casino open on his own. Some of the union members went to Trenton Thursday to ask state lawmakers to support them.

“When Trump came out of bankruptcy in 2010, Icahn almost doubled the interest he was charging to 12 percent,” said Bina Vashi, a housekeeper at the casino. “The increase meant he made an extra US$ 17 million a year, while I was making less than US$ 17 per hour. Now he is blaming the health insurance that I rely on to keep healthy for Taj’s financial problems. I want politicians to understand that Carl Icahn has a history of stripping workers of their benefits and that they need to stand up to this bully with us.”