Strike at Taj Mahal casino raises questions about its future

Local 54 of the Unite-HERE union went on strike Friday against the casino, which was opened in 1990 by presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump but now belongs to a different billionaire, Carl Icahn.

The Taj Mahal, which remains open and was to host a concert by the hair metal band Whitesnake on Friday night, ranks next to last in Atlantic City in terms of the amount of money it wins from gamblers each month.

The union called the strike after being unable to agree on a contract that restored health care and pension benefits that a bankruptcy judge terminated in October 2014.

Battaglini said paying for health insurance on his own through the Affordable Care Act has left him in dire financial straits.

Chuck Baker, a cook at the casino since the day it opened in 1990 and a member of the negotiating committee, said Taj Mahal management offered to restore some level of health care late Thursday, but the union rejected it as inadequate.

The bankruptcy filing and the benefit terminations at the Taj Mahal happened five years after Trump relinquished control of the casino and its parent company, Trump Entertainment Resorts.