\nChristopher Palmeri, Bloomberg<\/p>\n
\tBloomberg) \u2014 Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. has staked the survival of its Taj Mahal casino on a bid for concessions from union members who so far have resisted proposed cuts to their health and pension benefits.<\/p>\n
\tThe company is set to ask U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross at a hearing today in Wilmington, Delaware, to allow it to terminate its contract with Unite Here Local 54, which represents about 1,100 employees at the Atlantic City, New Jersey, casino.<\/p>\n
\tTrump Entertainment has argued that the current union contract imposes an unsustainable cost of about $20 million a year and that cuts are necessary to induce lenders controlled by billionaire Carl Icahn to invest $100 million, according to court documents.<\/p>\n
\tManagement is seeking to shift workers from a traditional pension to a 401(k) program, end the health-care plan and move employees to an Affordable Care Act-sponsored program. The union has taken to the streets to protest the move.<\/p>\n
\tTrump Entertainment said in a court filing that Unite Here is \u201cwilling to sacrifice the jobs of the workers at the Taj Mahal\u201d in an effort to \u201cprotect other members of the union working at other casinos.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tIf Trump Entertainment succeeds in winning the cuts, it could allow most other Atlantic City casinos to seek the same concessions from Unite Here under a so-called most-favored- nation clause in their labor agreements, according to court documents.<\/p>\n
\tTax Concessions<\/p>\n
\tThe benefit cuts alone won\u2019t save the Taj Mahal, which the company has warned may close as soon as next month. Trump Entertainment said it also needs property tax concessions from local and state governments to achieve its restructuring plan. Another Trump Entertainment property, the Plaza, closed last month as Atlantic City loses gambling business to nearby states.<\/p>\n
\tThe union has said that the bankruptcy judge doesn\u2019t have the authority to decide whether Trump Entertainment can cancel the contract, and that federal law requires the dispute to go before the National Labor Relations Board.<\/p>\n
\tLast week, union members rallied against the proposed cuts, protesting in front of Icahn\u2019s Tropicana in Atlantic City. Several hundred casino workers, some chanting \u201cno health care, no peace,\u201d also blocked a highway in the city to protest the proposed concessions.<\/p>\n
\tTotal Contract<\/p>\n
\tAt an Oct. 3 hearing, Gross denied the casino owner\u2019s request to stop funding union pensions, ruling that bankruptcy law prohibits rejecting only a portion of a contract. The judge said he would consider the matter as part of today\u2019s bid to terminate the entire collective-bargaining agreement.<\/p>\n
\tDonald Trump, the real-estate tycoon and reality-TV star who founded the company, began investing in Atlantic City in the early 1980s. He has no involvement in Trump Entertainment now and has been seeking to have his name removed from both of its properties.<\/p>\n
\tThe case is In re Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc., 14- bk-12103, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).<\/p>\n
Posted by:<\/strong> Scan on October 15, 2014, 9:45 pm<\/p>\n \tLeft wing hypocrites<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Christopher Palmeri, Bloomberg Bloomberg) \u2014 Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. has staked the survival of its Taj Mahal casino on a bid for concessions from union members who so far have resisted proposed cuts to their health and pension benefits. The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8149\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}