By Amy S. Rosenberg

– ATLANTIC CITY – About 1,000 bellhops, cooks, cocktail servers, and housekeepers went on strike early Friday at the Trump Taj Mahal, leaving the city’s most financially fragile casino scrambling to keep up with the start of the big Fourth of July weekend.

The workers, members of Unite Here Local 54, set up picket lines at 6 a.m. on the Boardwalk beneath the huge Trump Taj Mahal sign, and on Pacific Avenue next to the marble elephants at the property’s entrance.

“It’s a big injustice,” said hotel cleaner Sanjay Shah, walking an empty Taj hallway shortly before the walkout. He said he is paid $8.60 an hour with no benefits, not even a break.

Although the visuals shouted out Trump, and caused a stir on social media among fans and foes of presumed Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, the $1 billion property that Trump opened in 1990 is now wholly owned by billionaire Carl Icahn.

Trump sued to take his name off the now-closed Trump Plaza, but the Taj remains Trump-branded. Workers trained their anger on Icahn. “Shame! Shame! Shame on Icahn!” they chanted.

The company, meanwhile, pressed dealers, who are not on strike, into service as cocktail servers, and top hotel and security managers as bellmen, handling luggage for incoming guests. Restaurants, however, were closed, as were some restrooms. The grand reopening of the Sultan’s Feast buffet was canceled.

Tony Rodio, CEO of the Icahn-owned Tropicana, who also oversees the Taj, accused the union of being “hell-bent on trying to close this property.”

He said the company had bargained in good faith and made an offer to the union it had “been under the impression” would be accepted. The offer included restoring some health insurance and reducing the number of rooms per shift per cleaner from 16 to 14.

“They are hurting their own and everybody else during the busiest time of the year,” Rodio said in a statement.

Union representatives said they considered the health-care offer inadequate.

“If the choice is to continue working in poverty and the place closes, they’re comfortable with that,” Union president Bob McDevitt said of workers.

Guests continued to stream into the hotel, some there especially for the deep fryer being offered to regular gamblers, others for the Whitesnake concert, still others using up comps for the weekend. The hotel did not appear to be accepting new reservations.

Carol Bartlett of Maryland said she’d clean her room herself. “I can make my own bed,” she said.

At check-in time Friday, guests waited two deep, although roped-line stations set up to deal with overflow crowds were empty.

Just outside, Unite Here protesters continued their loud banter, urging passing motorists and pedestrians to “stay somewhere else.”

Some took the hint. “We checked out this morning,” said Roxanne Peirson of Lehigh County, Pa., who had stayed at the hotel for a few days with her husband. “We’ve been coming here a long time, but we think what they are doing to these people is terrible.”

Where were they going?

“Anywhere but here,” said her husband, Richard.

The strike, though limited to one property, was another blow to a punch-drunk city that in recent years has weathered a devastating hurricane, four casino closures, 10,000 lost jobs, a drastic reduction in ratables, and a near-default on its loans. It is now fighting off both a state takeover and a proposal to add two casinos in North Jersey. The city government remains hundreds of millions of dollars in debt. The surviving casinos, however, have seen profits go up and an overall stabilization of the industry.

Around 6:45 a.m., Mayor Don Guardian rode by striking workers on his ritual morning bike ride. He did not stop and only gave a small wave. Across from the picket line, Anthony Catanoso, owner of the iconic Steel Pier, stared at the noisy picket line that circled in a long oval with drumming, chanting, and bullhorns. “We can’t get a break,” he said.

The union settled with four other casinos earlier this week, but rejected a last offer from the Taj near midnight Thursday and set a 6 a.m. strike.

The casino emerged from a bitter bankruptcy battle earlier this year, during which the unions were stripped of their health benefits.

The Taj is now run by the same managers that run the Icahn-owned Tropicana. The company had recently sunk about $15 million into renovating rooms and cleaning up the property, which had badly deteriorated. Icahn spent about $86 million keeping the Taj open while four other casinos closed during 2014.

McDevitt said he did not blame the current management for the impasse.

“It goes to New York, to Wall Street, to private equity, to the billionaires who’ve sucked the marrow out of the bones of this city,” he said. “How do you have a worker in 2016 without a paid work break? The bodega on the corner, the guy working the register gets a half-hour.”

Some guests, like doorman Robert Schwartz and his wife, Sylvia, of the Bronx, celebrating their third anniversary, said they were sympathetic, but would not change their plans.

Gary and Diane Cole of Monroe Township, Pa., said they were disappointed by the delayed check-in and lack of restaurants, but would stay.

“I did see men in suits taking luggage,” Gary Cole said. “It’s a simple formula. When they run out of services, we’re going home.”

Source – http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/real-time/Union-strikes-at-Trump-Taj-Mahal.html

By John George

– Non-professional hospital workers at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children and Delaware County Memorial Hospital have voted to be represented by District 1199C.

The Philadelphia-based union already represents employees such as cafeteria workers, laundry workers, maintenance staff and other service employees at eight area hospitals.

District 1199C officials said Saturday that among the 236 eligible workers at St. Christopher’s in Philadelphia, 161 voted in favor of joining the union and seven voted against. Among the 203 eligible workers at Delaware County Memorial Hospital in Drexel Hill, Pa., part of Crozer-Keystone Health System, 95 voted in favor of joining the union and 60 voted against.

Officials at the two hospitals were not immediately available to comment on the union votes.

Both hospitals had other union votes earlier this year when the nursing staffs at each medical center voted to join Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals.

John George covers health care, biotech/pharmaceuticals and sports business.

Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/news/2016/06/27/1199c-union-st-christoper-delco-memorial-hospital.html

By WAYNE PARRY, The Associated Press

– ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) – The head of Atlantic City’s main casino workers union said Tuesday that a strike is likely against at least one of five casinos this week.

Bob McDevitt, president of Local 54 of the Unite-HERE union, said the union remains in talks with Bally’s, Caesars, Harrah’s, Tropicana and the Trump Taj Mahal. All five could be hit by walkouts if contracts are not reached by Friday, ahead of the July Fourth holiday weekend.

He said the union’s concern is to ensure casinos continue to provide a decent middle-class living for workers. The union is trying to recoup concessions it made in past years when casinos were in worse financial shape. The casinos say they are committed to a deal that is fair to both sides.

“We want back what we gave up voluntarily to help our employers,” McDevitt said. “They have the memory of a goldfish: Every 10 seconds they forget what you’ve done for them.”

McDevitt said talks are progressing at different rates with Caesars Entertainment, which owns Bally’s, Caesars and Harrah’s, and billionaire Carl Icahn, who owns Tropicana and the Taj Mahal.

“We’re closer in some cases with Trop and closer in some instances with Caesars,” he said.

As expected, the Taj Mahal has been a particular sticking point. Its former owners, Trump Entertainment Resorts, got a bankruptcy court judge to terminate union members’ health care and pension benefits in 2014 before Icahn took the casino over. McDevitt said those cuts cannot be allowed to stand, particularly because of a “most favored employer” clause that gives casinos the right to adopt the terms of a more favorable deal reached with others.

“If the Taj Mahal contract ends up not having health care or pensions or a wage increase, that would quickly become the standard for the rest of the industry,” he said.

A Caesars Entertainment official said the company’s goal is to keep workers on the job under a fair contract. A Tropicana official declined to comment Tuesday.

About 6,500 of the union’s nearly 10,000 workers who serve drinks, cook food and clean hotel rooms would strike if a deal is not reached. Borgata, Resorts and the Golden Nugget would not be affected by a strike because the union is not targeting them, saying they have adopted better stances toward their workers.

Elaine Malloy has served drinks at Bally’s for nearly 26 years, at a base salary before tips of $8.99 an hour.

“It’s a disgrace to work for $8.99 an hour, to pay for a mortgage, utility bills, food, clothing,” she said. “Everything is going up, and my wage hasn’t.”

The union agreed to givebacks or went without increases in benefits and salary in past negotiations to help the casinos as their bottom lines were increasingly threatened by the oversaturated Northeastern U.S. casino market. In 2014, four of Atlantic City’s 12 casinos went out of business. Now, with less competition, their finances are starting to stabilize.

“People are not going to work for 10 years without a wage increase,” McDevitt said. “We’re not in a Stalinist state where you can force workers to work for whatever you say.”

Additional talks with the three Caesars Entertainment casinos and the Tropicana are scheduled for Wednesday and with the Taj Mahal on Thursday.

Source – http://www.philly.com/philly/business/tourism_casinos/20160628_ap_2a72bfa84b1241179b08ab4c1243784b.html

By Associated Press

– The union representing faculty members at Pennsylvania’s 14 state universities has set an Aug. 25 date for a decision on whether members will take a strike authorization vote.

The Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties said an emergency legislative assembly was scheduled after no progress was made in talks Friday with the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.

Delegates from all 14 campuses are to convene via conference on Aug. 25 to decide whether members will take a strike authorization vote. If a majority of delegates approve, the union will set a date for a vote.

Other bargaining sessions are planned over the summer, the next one on July 19. Faculty members have been working without a contract since the last agreement expired in June of last year.

Source – http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/item/94873-faculty-union-to-mull-strike-authorization-in-august-

By Colt Shaw

– HARRISBURG – Philadelphia firefighters are looking to get their peers in the city’s Firefighters and Paramedics Union the same disability coverage they enjoy.

The Heart and Lung Act of 1935 compels employers of public-safety workers such as police and firefighters – but not EMTs and paramedics – to get their full pay and health coverage during time off for an on-the-job injury.

With help from Rep. Frank Farry, a Bucks County Republican and volunteer fireman, the union, Local 22, is pushing to extend those protections to emergency medical workers, making them “financially whole” while on disability leave.

Besides the make-up pay, the amended measure would let a firefighter unhappy with treatment directed under worker’s compensation to seek care from doctors specified under the Heart and Lung Act, according to the bill’s sponsor and union members. Farry says that option “actually allows for them to get back to work quicker.”

Philadelphia stands out in hiring EMTs and paramedics as city employees who are members of the local firefighters union.

The proposed change is not without critics. Most Pennsylvania municipalities have volunteers provide those services or contract with private medics.

Smaller townships and municipalities with third-party medics are concerned that the measure could be interpreted to cover their contracted forces as well, said Elam Herr, assistant executive director of the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors.

Townships and small cities that rely on volunteers “are not overly flush with excess cash,” she said.

Farry said the bill could be altered to address those concerns. He is proposing changes to ensure the legislation would apply to city EMTs and paramedics with firefighting duties – but not volunteer paramedics or EMTs.

Rep. Stephen Barrar (R., Delaware), chairman of the House Veterans Affairs & Emergency Preparedness Committee, said he supports the bill “in concept” but believes it can be strengthened. “We want to make sure the language is clear,” Barrar said.

Chuck McQuilkin, the sargeant-at-arms for Local 22, says the union is hoping to limit the proposal to Philadelphia, so other municipalities don’t feel threatened by its potential passage.

“We’re trying to gear it just toward Philadelphia,” McQuilkin said. “We’re trying to get what’s best for our people.”

Source – http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/20160625_Bill_would_extend_coverage_for_Philly_paramedics__EMTs.html