Icahn Responds to Picketing Taj Mahal Employees

At a Thursday protest, union employees from Atlantic City, N.J.’s Trump Taj Mahal had an angry message to deliver to billionaire Carl Icahn. And now, the employees have their answer.

In a letter posted to his website, the activist investor argues that he’s “not fighting against the employees” of the Taj Mahal, who had their medical and pension benefits cut as part of the beleaguered casino’s bankruptcy. Instead, Mr. Icahn says, “I am fighting for those employees—fighting to save their jobs in the midst of a wholly unstable crisis.”

Mr. Icahn, who, as the largest secured lender to the Taj Mahal, control’s the casino’s fate, blames the “catastrophic circumstances” facing Atlantic City for the cuts employees have faced. He also details at length why the union’s health care plan had to be cut, and why he believes providing health plans under the Affordable Care Act or Medicaid are an adequate solution.

Some of the employees at Thursday’s rally, members of Unite Here Local 54, said replacing the lost health care has been financially devastating.

“He’s taken our middle-class jobs and made us into the working poor,” cocktail waitress Valerie McMorris said Thursday of Mr. Icahn. Ms. McMorris, a 25-year employee at the Taj Mahal, said her $9 hourly pay and diminished tips aren’t enough to cover the $700 a month she now has to pay for health insurance.

Paul Smith, a cook at a restaurant inside the casino, said he doesn’t know how he’ll pay for surgery to fix a torn rotator cuff now that he’s without insurance and didn’t qualify for a plan under ObamaCare. After raising two sons by himself on his Atlantic City salary, “to apply for welfare is a kick in the face,” he said.

Local 54’s lawyers are appealing the decision to cut worker benefits, arguing  that U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Kevin Gross didn’t have the power to cancel the contract for the unionized workers because it expired before his ruling. The union represents about a third of the Taj Mahal’s nearly 3,000 employees.

Trump Entertainment is gathering votes on a bankruptcy-exit plan that would turn over control of the gambling operation to Mr. Icahn, who has agreed to invest $20 million as part of the plan. Earlier proposals included investing $100 million, but only if he secured labor peace and $175 million worth of government concessions. That deal eventually fell apart and was replaced by the $20 million offer.

Write to Sara Randazzo at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @sara_randazzo