\nWayne Parry, Associated Press <\/p>\n
\tATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) \u2013 Billionaire investor Carl Icahn says union benefit costs and work rules were a big reason four of Atlantic City\u2019s 12 casinos closed last year.<\/p>\n
\tIcahn said on Tuesday that Local 54 of the Unite-HERE union \u201cis one of the main contributors to the problems in Atlantic City.\u201d His comments came a day after union president Bob McDevitt said Icahn is trying to \u201cdisembowel\u201d Atlantic City to line his own pockets.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cMcDevitt neglects to mention that one-third of Atlantic City\u2019s casinos closed in the last year in no small part because of the work rules and exorbitant contributions to the secretive, immensely profitable union-affiliated health care plan as well as the (National Retirement Fund) pension fund that the union requires,\u201d Icahn said. \u201cSimply put, his union is one of the main contributors to the problems in Atlantic City, but instead of taking some responsibility or agreeing to make concessions that could save jobs, he is instead employing that age old strategy of pick a scapegoat, tell a lie and foment outrage.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tIcahn owns the Tropicana and is acquiring the Trump Taj Mahal through bankruptcy court by swapping $286 million in debt he owns from Trump Entertainment Resorts for ownership of the company. Though he doesn\u2019t yet own the casino, he is lending it money to stay open.<\/p>\n
\tThe union said Icahn has been using that leverage to control Trump Entertainment behind the scenes, and it said he had a hand in the closure of the Atlantic Club casino through Tropicana, which bought the casino with Caesars Entertainment and shut it down. It also accused Icahn of thwarting the conversion of the former Showboat casino into a college campus by enforcing a legal covenant prohibiting Showboat from being used as anything but a casino.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThe reality is that Mr. Icahn has been the puppet master pulling the strings at Trump for months now, and everyone in Atlantic City knows it,\u201d McDevitt said.<\/p>\n
\tHe said Icahn was \u201cintimately involved\u201d in the closures of the Atlantic Club and Trump Plaza and used the bankruptcy court to strip workers of their health insurance. He also said Icahn was blocking educational opportunities for hundreds of students.<\/p>\n
\tTrump Entertainment CEO Robert Griffin said union health and pension costs and work rules were a major reason why the company filed for bankruptcy last September and one of several reasons why it decided to shut Trump Plaza on Sept. 16.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe started talks with Local 54 very early in 2014 and we told them we couldn\u2019t afford the current plans,\u201d Griffin said. \u201cWe told them we can\u2019t afford to have three people do the job of one, and that we need to negotiate a new contract. We received no response.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tIcahn said the pension fund to which the union belongs and a union-run health care plan are unaffordable. He said he pulled the Tropicana out of the pension plan, which \u201chas underperformed the S&P 500 by over 50 percent during the last five years and is currently underfunded by billions of dollars.\u201d The Tropicana now offers its workers a 401(k)-type retirement plan.<\/p>\n
\tThe union is appealing a judge\u2019s termination of health and pension coverage for Taj workers. Icahn has threatened to close the casino if the ruling is reversed.<\/p>\n
No replies were posted for this topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wayne Parry, Associated Press ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) \u2013 Billionaire investor Carl Icahn says union benefit costs and work rules were a big reason four of Atlantic City\u2019s 12 casinos closed last year. Icahn said on Tuesday that Local 54…<\/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-8798","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\/8798","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=8798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8798\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}