By NICHOLAS HUBA and CHRISTIAN HETRICK

– ATLANTIC CITY — The owners of Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort said Wednesday that the casino will close after Labor Day weekend, blaming striking Unite Here Local 54 workers for preventing a “path to profitability.”

In justifying the decision to close, Tony Rodio, president and CEO of Tropicana Entertainment, said the Taj is losing millions of dollars a month and that the owners have “fiduciary duties to their shareholders.”

The company intends to send state-required mass layoff notices before the weekend, Rodio said in a statement.

On April 2 1990, Trump Taj Mahal, the twelfth and largest casino in Atlantic City, opens for business. Dubbed the ‘eighth wonder of the world,…

The casino employed more than 2,100 people at the end of 2015, including about 1,000 Local 54 members, according to the documents filed the with state Division of Gaming Enforcement.

Local 54 President Bob McDevitt accused Taj owner Carl Icahn of taking the 34-day strike personally.

“For a few million bucks, he could have had labor peace and a content workforce, but instead he’d rather slam the door shut on these long-term workers just to punish them and attempt to break their strike,” McDevitt said in a statement. “There was no element of trying to reach an agreement here on Icahn’s part; it was always ‘my way or the highway’ from the beginning with Icahn.”

The Taj Mahal would be the city’s fifth casino to close since 2014.

Two years ago, the city’s casino industry was decimated by the closings of Showboat Casino Hotel on Aug. 31, Revel on Sept. 2 and Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino on Sept. 16. The Atlantic Club Casino Hotel closed earlier that year, taking with it 1,600 jobs.

When the dust settled, about 8,000 employees had lost jobs.

About 1,000 cooks, housekeepers, bellmen, bartenders, cocktail servers and other service workers at Taj Mahal have been on strike since July 1. The strike at the casino-hotel follows union agreements with Tropicana Atlantic City and Caesars Entertainment, which owns Caesars Atlantic City, Harrah’s Resort and Bally’s Atlantic City.

Hundreds of entertainers have played at Trump Taj Mahal since it opened in April of 1990. Here are just a smattering of some of those big tick…

“It’s a shame. I see both sides, really,” said Dan Worman, 47, of Egg Harbor Township, as he played slots Wednesday afternoon inside the Taj. “Atlantic City is not as strong of a market as it used to be. And I do believe in Icahn and Tony Rodio, that if they would have turned it around, they would have gave (the workers) their money. It’s just right now, it’s just bad timing.”

When it opened on April 2, 1990, the Taj Mahal, formerly owned by Donald J. Trump, had 120,000 square feet of gaming space and claimed to be the world’s largest casino. The casino also billed itself as the “eighth wonder of the world.”

Despite the announcement of the potential closing, striking workers were still out on the Boardwalk alerting visitors to their plight. At one point, the striking workers chanted: “If we don’t get it (a new contract), shut it down.”

“Carl Icahn said he was going to invest in the building, invest in the workers and get the Taj Mahal going to the days of what it used to be,” said Pete Battaglini, a 60-year-old bellman at the casino. “Now today he announced he is going to close it. I feel that it’s just that Wall Street mentality, ‘We will take what we can get and then move on.’”

Icahn became the owner of the Taj Mahal after taking the casino’s mounting debt. At one point, he promised to pour $100 million into the casino to renovate it, but he backed off that pledge until the question of North Jersey casinos was settled. Last October, a federal judge agreed that as part of the casino’s bankruptcy process, the union could stop making health care and pension payments to workers.

Source – http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/breaking/trump-taj-mahal-announces-it-will-close/article_d297274e-59a7-11e6-962b-4b2234e7959b.html

By Jane M. Von Bergen

– Infrastructure.

That’s what John “Johnny Doc” Dougherty wants from Hillary Clinton, if she becomes the next president of the United States.

“I’m going to lobby for a subway from here to the Navy Yard,” Dougherty said at last week’s DNC convention.

Nobody comes to a political convention without an agenda — not Hillary Clinton, not Bernie Sanders, not the hundreds of lobbyists and particularly not organized labor.

For them, and everyone else, the convention was about making impressions and making contacts.

For Dougherty, it was more like contact, as he hugged guests, leaned in for kisses and glad-handed a galaxy of local political figures including council members Mark Squilla and Bobby Henon at a boisterous party his politically-connected union hosted at McFadden’s Restaurant and Saloon next to the Citizens Bank ball park.

Over the week of the convention, Dougherty estimated that his union spent more than $80,000 on parties, including $20,000 to $25,000 to host the McFadden’s shindig.

“I’ve been one of the loudest advocates” for infrastructure and the subway line, said Dougherty, who leads both Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Philadelphia Building Trades Council.

“I’m a construction leader. It will create a lot of opportunities,” he said, before pumping yet another hand or going in for a man-hug.

Oddly enough for someone with his title, Michael Podhorzer, the AFL-CIO’s political director, spent convention week trying to avoid contact with politicians, or at least candidates.

That’s because under current election law, organizations that remain independent of candidates and their campaigns can mount bigger programs on their behalf — and Podhorzer’s role with the AFL-CIO is as an independent.

So, instead of buttonholing candidates — a task better left to his boss, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, Podhorzer worked on energizing the foot soldiers – and convincing labor supporters of Sanders to switch their allegiance to Clinton, or, at least, cement their commitment to defeat Donald Trump.

“It’s a chance to catch up and have everybody in the same place from around the country,” Podhorzer said.

On the Sunday before the convention opened, the AFL-CIO held a party for its members who were serving as delegates in the convention. The local carpenters’ union hosted a similar party for its delegate members , as did other unions.

“Meeting with our members is the most important thing I do,” said Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the union behind the $15 an hour minimum wage campaign for workers at fast food restaurants, home care, child care and airports.

On Henry’s agenda was a full calendar of meetings with other progressive groups and political leaders.

That was Podhorzer’s goal as well.

“One of the opportunities you get at the convention that is really good that you don’t get in a national organization working in Washington is [a chance] to meet with people are doing great work in their communities, but aren’t part of a national organization,” he said.

Those meetings he said, paid off in emails from new acquaintances who want to work with the AFL-CIO’s election campaign.

Everyone came with a wish list.

Donald C. Siegel, an IBEW vice president for a territory covering several nearby states, wanted to ask Clinton to turn away a potential tax on so-called “Cadillac” health plans — the better-quality health plans that some unions win for their members.

For Kenneth Rigmaiden, who leads the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, infrastructure and apprenticeship programs were major priorities and the focused message of every contact with every politician, including Clinton.

She seemed to have gotten the message, he said. “Every time she talks to me, she mentions infrastructure and apprenticeships.”

Like Henry and Podhorzer, he built time into his convention schedule to meet progressive groups — labor’s increasingly important allies as union member rolls shrink.

In one way, the last-minute agreement by American Airlines, the major carrier at the airport, to talk to SEIU and other groups representing wheelchair attendants and others threatening a convention walk-out was an example of a convention strategy come to fruition.

“It would not have happened without it,” said Hector Figueroa, president of SEIU Local 32BJ, the union behind the walk-out threat. Even though American Airlines doesn’t employ the workers, it does negotiate contracts with the companies that do.

Philadelphia’s Patrick Eiding had a laundry list of issues he’d like to discuss with Clinton, with enforcement of existing trade agreements at the top of it.

But Eiding, who leads the Philadelphia AFL-CIO, had something else on his mind — a constant worry over whether the city and its organized labor would deliver on its promise to create a great show for the party and a great showcase for the city.

“We wanted to have labor peace and also to make sure that most of the jobs were done by our local people. I think we achieved everyone of those,” Eiding said. “The city came out A-1.”

How worried was he?

Even as Katy Perry was singing on stage Thursday, Eiding on his cellphone calling unions to dispatch more workers to the Wells Fargo Center on Friday to speed up the tear down.

“That’s what we do for each other here,” he said.

Source – http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20160802_Unions_honed_strategies_at_the_DNC.html

By Thomas Fitzgerald and Jonathan Tamari

– Hillary Clinton offered a confident vision Thursday night of a nation “stronger together” and capable of overcoming the forces of division to build a future with greater opportunity for all Americans despite pressing problems.

“Bonds of trust and respect are fraying,” Clinton said as she formally accepted the Democratic nomination for president. “It truly is up to us: We have to decide whether we’re going to work together so we can all rise together.”

For Clinton, who made history as the first woman nominated by a major political party in the United States, the speech represented a high-profile chance to forge an emotional connection with the public, something she has by her own admission struggled to do in a long political career.

“I get it that some people just don’t know what to make of me,” Clinton said. She said she was motivated by a tenet of her Methodist faith: Do all the good you can.

Thunderous cheers greeted Clinton in the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, with party members celebrating the historic moment and the start of the final 15-week sprint to try to defeat Republican Donald Trump.

As Clinton took the stage, women and men waved American flags and several wiped away tears.

Sheila Lewis, 61, a delegate from Baton Rouge, La. held her flag up high. “Incredible,” she said, shaking her head. And then around Lewis, people whooped and cheered “Hill-a-ry!” as parents lifted up their kids. She joined them in their chorus.

Polls show that majorities of voters dislike Clinton and find her untrustworthy, and overcoming those numbers is a major challenge for her candidacy. One help: Trump is more unpopular.

Clinton also drew a contrast, portraying Trump, with his boasts that he alone can fix the country’s problems, as essentially un-American – and too unstable to be president.

“He loses his cool at the slightest provocation,” the former secretary of state said. “Imagine him in the Oval Office facing a real crisis. A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons.”

Trump, a New York real estate investor and former reality-TV star, has disparaged illegal Mexican immigrants as “rapists” and criminals, promised to build a wall on the southern border (and make Mexico pay for it), and proposed banning Muslims from entering the U.S. He has called himself the “law and order” candidate, echoing Richard M. Nixon in the turbulent 1968 election.

Worries about economic security in a time of stagnant wages and slow growth – and frustration with government dysfunction – has fueled anger at established institutions that won the GOP nomination for Trump and made Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont a formidable challenger to Clinton for the Democratic nomination.

The share of Americans who think the country is on the wrong track is 46 percentage points higher than those who think it is heading in the right direction.

Convention week began with fury after Wikileaks released emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee that showed party officials favoring Clinton and plotting ways to hurt Sanders’ campaign – as he and his supporters had long suspected.

National Democratic chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz was forced to resign, and enraged Sanders backers took to Philadelphia’s streets in protest, with “Bernie or Bust” activists camping out in FDR Park and advocating for Green Party candidate Jill Stein.

By the time Clinton stepped to the podium, though, the tone was softening. Earlier Thursday, one group of Sanders delegates said it was time to look toward the November election and line up with Clinton.

“Trump needs to be defeated,” Norman Solomon, head of the Bernie Delegates Network, said at a news briefing. “Alas, the only way to do that is for people in swing states to vote for Hillary Clinton.”

Activists said the movement started by Sanders would keep pressure on Clinton to deliver on progressive promises and to earn their votes.

Some were still not ready to surrender, however. Sanders delegates wearing neon yellow shirts with the slogan “Enough is Enough” were sprinkled through the arena. The shirts seemed to glow every time the house lights faded.

Martese Chism, a Sanders delegate from Illinois, said the shirts stood for the movement’s endurance after the “party shut the lights on us.” The dissidents say the nomination process was rigged, arguing that super-delegates – elected officials and senior Democrats who do not have to follow the popular vote – threw the nomination to Clinton. (In fact, she won more popular votes and pledged delegates overall.)

“If she had won honestly, then it would have been historic,” said Colorado delegate Victoria Bard, 50, a homemaker and mother of three.

Even amid the ruckus, the primary division seemed to be healing. A Pew Research Center poll released Monday found 90 percent of “consistent” Sanders backers would cast their ballots for Clinton. The survey had finished its sampling well before the Vermont senator moved to make Clinton’s nomination unanimous during Tuesday’s roll call of the states.

In a nod to the Rust Belt states both parties expect to decide the election, the lineup before prime time included speeches from an Ohio congressman, the former governor of Michigan, and the current governor of Pennsylvania, Gov. Wolf.

One of the most gripping moments of the entire week came Thursday from an unlikely source: Khzir Khan, a Muslim whose son, a U.S. Army captain, was killed fighting in Iraq. Khan pulled a copy of the Constitution from his pocket, asking if Trump had ever read the nation’s founding document. The room turned electric.

“I will gladly lend you my copy,” Khan said.

Hours before Clinton spoke, the arena was rocking and stuffed to the rafters.

In the Pennsylvania seating area, some Sanders delegates were shuffled to overflow seating, near the Arkansas delegation, to help make room for party insiders, elected officials and their family members who wrangled seats on the floor. The added guests drew the ire of Kat Richter, a Sanders delegate from Philadelphia who is in a wheelchair after surgery a week ago. She said she had to move three times before she could find a seat she could stay in.

Pointing to the non-delegates allowed on the floor, she said, “You were not elected, you did not collect 300 signatures, you didn’t run in an election.”

As notable as Clinton’s achievement is, women still comprise less than 25 percent of American mayors, legislators, governors and members of Congress, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

“It sends a powerful message to girls and boys that a woman can be the commander-in-chief of the most powerful country in the world,” said Debbie Walsh, director of the Rutgers center.

“People shouldn’t be tricked into thinking the problem of under-representation of women in politics is solved,” she said. “There’s so much more work to be done.”

Source – http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/dnc/20160729_Hed_Here_Up_Style.html

By Fabiola Cineas

– There will be no airport strike during the Democratic National Convention this week, according to a statement released Friday evening by Gabe Morgan, the Pennsylvania director of 32BJ Service Employees International Union.

Last Tuesday, hundreds of airport workers and supporters protested along airport roadways, demanding $15 an hour in wages and changes to the discipline and sick pay systems, among other things. The workers and supporters rallied in part to give the country a preview of how they would organize during the DNC, which is set to begin on Monday, when the nation’s gaze would be on Philadelphia.

But according to 32BJ SEIU, which has long been trying to organize the airport’s baggage handlers, cabin cleaners, wheelchair handlers and security guards, efforts by Mayor Jim Kenney and Gov. Tom Wolf this week led the group to call off the strike.

“We thank Mayor Kenney and Governor Wolf for convening meetings between American Airlines and 32BJ SEIU,” Morgan said in a statement. “American Airlines has committed to ensuring that subcontracted workers have a fair process to form their union.”

32BJ SEIU says it will work with American Airlines over the next few days to “reach an agreement where workers’ rights are respected and the airport runs smoothly,” the statement said.

During last Tuesday’s strike, hundreds of members from 32BJ SEIU were bused into Philadelphia as part of the national “Fight for 15” movement, and local clergy leaders and elected officials also joined the demonstration that traveled from Terminals A through F.

“We are grateful for the leadership of Mayor Kenney and Governor Wolf on behalf of workers,” Morgan said. “We are moved by the clergy members of POWER who, just yesterday, took arrest to defend workers’ rights. We are grateful for the incredible outpouring of support from DNC delegates across the country and the leadership of Congressman Bob Brady.”

American Airlines says there will be further meetings this coming week. In a statement, American Airlines Vice President Cedric Rockamore said, “[We] would like to thank Governor Wolf, Mayor Kenney, Congressman Brady, Councilman Henon, Airport CEO Chellie Cameron and her team at the division of aviation, our airport business partners and SEIU for working together to maintain continued harmony at the airport during the Democratic National Convention and thereafter.”

Beginning this weekend, the airline says it expects nearly 8,000 delegates and about 50,000 convention attendees to be traveling to Philadelphia.

“Our focus is on giving all of our customers the best possible service and travel experience,” Rockamore said.

Source – http://www.phillymag.com/business/2016/07/23/dnc-airport-strike-averted/

BY Kali Robinson

– Donald Trump’s vice-presidential pick of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence should have workers worried.

“Mike Pence has waged repeated attacks on working Hoosiers as governor and will without a doubt continue the attacks alongside his anti-worker running mate Donald Trump who is ‘100 percent right to work,’” said Brett Voorhies, president of the Indiana State AFL-CIO, shortly after news of the announcement broke Friday.

Indiana became a right-to-work state under Pence’s predecessor, but Pence has worked to make sure it stays that way.

Under the law, unions cannot collect fees from non-members who take advantage of unions’ grievance or bargaining services, and are essentially providing these services without compensation.

Two local judges ruled that the law violated the state’s Constitution, causing the Indiana Department of Labor to stop enforcing the law briefly. Pence defended its legality. And in 2014, Indiana’s Supreme Court upheld the state’s right-to-work law.

Pence has also taken a stand against raising the minimum wage to livable levels, opposing a bill that would have raised Indiana’s minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.25. Instead, Pence signed into law a bill prohibiting local governments from forcing businesses to raise minimum wages unless mandated by the state or federal government.

Pence also signed a law repealing Indiana’s common construction wage, leaving wages on publicly-funded construction projects at the mercy of free-market pay scales rather than in the hands of local boards composed of taxpayers or contractors.

In a further blow to workers’ rights, Pence lent his support to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, saying that the deal would allow Indiana to “enjoy increased market access and fairly compete on the world stage.”

Most labor unions opposed TPP, arguing that it would allow for currency manipulation that increases America’s trade deficit and hurts manufacturing jobs.

Following news of Trump’s vice-presidential pick, Voorhies wrote that while he was relieved Pence would be out of Indiana’s governor’s race, the Republican Party could not be allowed to win the presidency in November.

“Mike Pence is running away from the people of Indiana and into the arms of Donald Trump, and the pair could not be more perfect for each other,” he said. “Trump and Pence are both driven by a divisive political agenda that focuses more on ideologies than actual practical solutions to the issues plaguing working people.”

Source – http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/19297/mike_pence_may_be_a_friend_to_trump_but_hes_no_friend_to_workers