TAJ

[jetermacaw]

Hardrock buying Taj.

[FAA]

Awesome. The rumors and rumblings played out. Too big to fail!

[JIMDUECE`SWILD]

 Here's the article.  http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news ... 10971.html

[Tedlark]

Interesting article Jim, what was even more interesting were the comments submitted at the end of the article.

[DaBurglar]

Interesting article Jim, what was even more interesting were the comments submitted at the end of the article.Serious question:  Which comments in particular did you find "interesting'?   I just read them all, seemed pretty typical.....For me, the only interesting comments were those pertaining to the Union (Local 54) and its ridiculous leader, Bob Mcdeavit.   The poor folks who comprised the everyday membership of the union who listened to this person and went on strike at the Taj in July wound up losing their jobs, for reasons which as it turned out were pointless and fictitious (in reality it was McDeavit simply trying for some "payback" against Icahn for what Icahn did several years earlier in his negotiations at the Tropicana.....Icahn ate McDeavit alive during the Trop restructuring and made "Mac Dee" look silly and foolish, which it turns out he actually is)I honestly hope during the next union elections they vote this "man" out of office.....

[FAA]

It would be all too fitting a demise for Mc Dead Weight. 

[BOOPSAHOY]

I was speaking to an ex Taj bellman. He said that last vote-when Icahn made them an offer, they never got to vote the leadership just nixed it. Take it with a grain of salt

[DaBurglar]

I was speaking to an ex Taj bellman. He said that last vote-when Icahn made them an offer, they never got to vote the leadership just nixed it. Take it with a grain of salt :-)WHAT EXACTLY  do we take with a grain of salt?   The fact the Bellman is claiming they never got to vote, or that management just nixed it?   I'm seriously asking because your experience with this Taj ex-bellman exactly mirrors/echoes my own conversations with several taj employees last September just before they folded and closed the doors....All three of the people I spoke to my last time at the Taj in September (and what was as it turns out my LAST time in AC up to now) related pretty much the same info you related, but with more details.   I know I related it earlier but let me repeat some of what I learned and heard from the Taj's former worker bees:Local 54 (and overall Union Head)  Mcdeavit (a.k.a. "McDeadhead",  "mcdunderhead"  etc)  called for a strike in July 2016 at the Taj, just as Icahn & his team were getting ready to make one final large scale push to improve and renovate the Taj to try and turn it around;  the timing of the strike just as Icahn was initiating this effort was done by Local 54 in an effort to pressure Icahn into restoring much of the health benefits and pension for Taj employees that a bankruptcy court had relieved Icahn of responsibility for when they managed to keep Taj operating back in late 2014.   Icahn insisted he needed these cuts in order to maintain profitability, plus with Obamacare the Taj employees were not left out in the cold since the company offered (and actually paid) vouchers for employees to find their own health insurance, and this was always a sore point with Mcdeavit and the Union.      PLUS, as told earlier, Icahn had taken McDeavitt,  to the woodshed over the Tropicana back in 2010 when it was on the verge of oblivion.....Icahn was able to get the Union to concede significant cuts in order to try and turn Tropicana around, and of course McDevious fought him tooth and nail the whole way.    Icahn not only won but was proven to be 100% correct with the Tropicana's amazing turnaround from the brink of oblivion to one of solid, decent quality entertainment, food and gaming....it is now arguably on the heels of Borgata for best overall AC property!   And what's more, the union employees of the Trop, in time, bought into Icahn's philosophy and success and this really made McDeavit look foolish, petty, incompetent and clueless.    So, fast forward to July 2016, and McDeavitt is looking for payback for this too,,,,,So the strike unfolds, and Icahn is miffed at the recklessness and nastiness of McDeavit, but nonetheless Icahn negotiates in good faith to try and end the strike and get on with the plans, but in the back of his mind is "how far am I really going to go with this property, how much MORE should I invest in this given this Union leader's total hostility and unreasonableness?"      Allegedly, Icahn finally made a serious offer/concession to the Union to try and break the deadlock, and it looked as if the deal would be accepted IF & when the members were allowed to vote on it by the Leadership (who, mind you,  have carte blanche negotiating powers.)  But here is where it gets really messy and awful.....In order to get the Union Taj Employees to actually GO on strike in July, Mcdeavit had utilized some funds from the Union to essentially PAY the Taj employees while on strike (the understanding ws the strike never would have went down without this detail), and Mcdeavit claimed when the strike began "Trust me, Icahn will give us what we want, he HAS TO!"  Many Taj employees had doubts about the wisdom and outcome of going on strike, knowing Icahn was frustrated.   But Mcdeavit overcame these objections in part by getting authorization from the ENTIRE AC union to pay the Taj folks while this went on....So, Icahn makes his best offer, and Mcdeavit supposedly was all set to accept it and allow it to be presented to the Taj Union folks, but at the last minute, Mcdeavit tries to add on one more "detail" to Icahn's proposal, and that is for Icahn to pay the Union (and Mcdeavit) the $1.5 million (or thereabouts) that the strike supposedly had cost the Union thus far ..... apparently, Mcdeavit had not counted on the strike lasting as long as it did or costing as much as it did and he was on the hook for this within the Union as a whole (which means, Mcdeavit's JOB as leader was apparently on the line!)     Well Icahn, when presented with this demand for the cost of the strike, blew a gasket and said NO WAY!   He challenged mcdeavit to let the union vote on his deal regardless, essentially calling Mcdeavit out for the incompetent idiot he was and for recklessly pursuing this strategy from the beginning.     So, when presented with this scenario, Mcdeavit did the only thing now open to him to try and save face (and his job) which was to simply NOT allow the vote to happen, to essentially REJECT the deal outright as his authority allowed and to label Icahn the cause of the impasse and rejection!I had no less than three different Taj employees relate this same general account of what went down and led to the shuttering of the Taj.     As boopsahoy suggests, pass the salt shakers, but I definitely BELEIVE for the most part exactly what these employees told me......the strike and ultimate refusal to compromise was NOT at all in the best interests of the TAJ union employees.Mcdeavit is a typical greedy hypocritical union leader who once was part of the rank and file but because he somehow was able to cultivate enough political currency amongst his own fellow worker bees and convince them to allow him to represent their interests, he ascended to the $450,000 a year position and promoted close family members and friends to various 6 figure positions within the Union hierarchy.   it stinks royally......

[Tedlark]

DaBurglar in paragraph 5 of your brief post you mention "some funds from the union to essentially PAY the TAJ employees while on strike." These funds are not unique to this particular union and it is commonly referred to as "strike pay." Strike pay is a small, I stress the word SMALL, stipend the union distributes to help workers feed their families while on strike. Strike pay would probably equate to about 6 hours of straight time pay and in most cases these same striking workers CANNOT file for unemployment insurance if they go out on strike because it would be considered a work stoppage and not a lockout. If it were a lockout then these same workers would then be eligible to file for unemployment insurance. If you think this is the only union rife with nepotism you should really rethink that position.

[DaBurglar]

DaBurglar in paragraph 5 of your brief post you mention "some funds from the union to essentially PAY the TAJ employees while on strike." These funds are not unique to this particular union and it is commonly referred to as "strike pay." Strike pay is a small, I stress the word SMALL, stipend the union distributes to help workers feed their families while on strike. Strike pay would probably equate to about 6 hours of straight time pay and in most cases these same striking workers CANNOT file for unemployment insurance if they go out on strike because it would be considered a work stoppage and not a lockout. If it were a lockout then these same workers would then be eligible to file for unemployment insurance. If you think this is the only union rife with nepotism you should really rethink that position.Good points/post (for once)......nowhere did I say this is the only union rife with nepotism or favoritism nor was it in itself a "position" (seriously, how did you even arrive at that conclusion based on what I wrote?  I simply pointed it out as yet another issue within this Union, one of many obviously......that's it. This is another example of a false issue common amongst political opponents who try to portray the other side in a certain way by twisting or insinuating something that is not so....)Yes, the strike pay itself is NOT the issue, it is the fact that Mcdeavit used it in the manner he did to orchestrate the strike, and then, in an effort to bail out his own arse for what was clearly a BAD move on his part in ordering the strike in the first place, he tried to get Icahn to reimburse the Union for all that strike pay......THAT is the issue here, according to the employees I spoke with:  Mcdeavit made this demand as a condition to present Icahn's plan to the Union employees for a vote, Icahn (sensing that his plan would win approval from the Union IF presented to them, and incensed that Mcdeavit would have the gall to try and make Icahn pay for Mcdeavits bad miscalculation) REFUSED, so Mcdeavit torpedoes the deal in an effort to save face and make Icahn at least appear, in part, to be the villain.....you can assume that, by NOT resolving the strike, somehow all that Union strike pay would subsequently be just written off instead of having to be replenished by the OTHER non Taj, non striking Union members of the other casinos in AC.   You can see where that is going, yes?