Union ramps up strike threat against Taj Mahal casino

ATLANTIC CITY (AP) — Atlantic City's main casino workers union is ramping up its threat of a strike against the Trump Taj Mahal casino.

Local 54 of the Unite-HERE union says it will load a storage trailer on Tuesday with supplies it would need for a strike against the casino. The pod will contain water coolers, T-shirts, ponchos, cots, wheelchairs, garbage cans, bullhorns, batteries, tents, tables and chairs, radios, musical instruments, marching band drums, an inflatable rat and generators.

The union also will begin training workers as "strike captains" to organize picketing.

It seeks the restoration of health insurance and pension coverage that the casino got permission from a bankruptcy judge to eliminate last October.

The union has already authorized a strike against the Taj Mahal should its leaders decide to call one.

A strike would target only the Taj Mahal. The last time the union went on strike was in 2004 when it targeted seven of the then-12 casinos in Atlantic City for a month. Before that, it staged a three-day walkout in 1999.

Trump Entertainment Resorts says it has a plan to remain open during a possible strike, but it won't detail the preparations it has made. The company is being acquired by billionaire Carl Icahn, who has criticized the union's health care plan as unaffordable.

Both sides are waiting for an appeals court ruling on whether the union members' benefits should be restored. If they are, Icahn has vowed to cut off financial support for the Taj Mahal and force it to close.

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