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500 join raucous but peaceful protest at Trump Taj Mahal

ATLANTIC CITY - A trio of Trump Taj Mahal waitresses - Susan Blight, Patti Pinchock, and Valerie McMorris - have been with the casino since it opened on April 2, 1990.

ATLANTIC CITY - A trio of Trump Taj Mahal waitresses - Susan Blight, Patti Pinchock, and Valerie McMorris - have been with the casino since it opened on April 2, 1990.

All three said Friday they sense its last days are on the near horizon.

"We just feel violated," said Pinchock, 53, of Egg Harbor Township, who held up a sign that read, "Healthcare RIP."

Added McMorris, 45, of Galloway Township: "A Delaware judge, with a stroke of a pen, took away our health-care benefits. Instead of being part of the middle class, we are now the working poor."

The three women were among about 500 Unite Here Local 54 members who marched outside the Taj Mahal for nearly three hours Friday to protest potential owner's Carl Icahn plan to strip them of health-care and pension benefits.

It was near-pandemonium at 6 p.m. as the protest swelled to its largest size, with members toting signs and yelling into bullhorns, and cars honking from all sides of Pacific and Pennsylvania Avenues while a chill moved in.

Icahn, who holds a large amount of the casino's debt, has threatened to shut down the Taj if he does not win major concessions from Local 54 as well as $175 million in state aid and other tax breaks. He said he would invest about $100 million into the property.

A federal judge gave Round One to Icahn by nullifying the Taj union contract Oct. 17, taking away company-paid health care and replacing pension plans with 401(k)s. That ruling would save Icahn about $14.8 million.

"No health care, no peace!" yelled the protesters. But Friday's gathering was peaceful. No arrests were made.

Earlier in the week, State Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester), who has the power to post bills in the upper chamber, said he would take no legislative action that would aid Icahn.

That standoff does not bode well for the Taj, since Icahn has said that he needs every aspect of the Taj's bankruptcy reorganization plan to fall into place for the casino to remain open. On Wednesday, Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc., the company that runs the Taj, said the casino would stay open at least through November instead of shutting Nov. 13.

Bob McDevitt, president of Local 54, issued a caustic assessment of Icahn on Friday.

"If you want to understand why Trump is in financial trouble, look no further than Carl Icahn," McDevitt said. "After he bought the loan on Trump, he was able to jack the interest rate on the loan to 12 percent - costing the company almost an additional $100 million in interest over and above what Trump would have paid under the old rate.

"In total over the past five years, through interest payments, principal payments, bankruptcy payouts, and other payments, Icahn has sucked almost $350 million out of Trump. And now he wants millions more from the state and city to subsidize his investments?"

In his defense, Icahn issued an open letter to Taj Mahal Local 54 employees Friday challenging them to look at the circumstances and saying their own union was not fighting to keep their jobs.

The billionaire said Trump Entertainment kept approaching him to save the Taj and nearly 3,000 jobs by investing in it.

"However, the Taj is in far worse financial shape than almost any company I have ever analyzed," he said. "I therefore told Taj management that I had no interest in investing. However, they did not give up and spent several days trying to convince me that if they could obtain certain enumerated concessions from the union, state, and city, they believed that with a $100 million investment from me, there would be a good chance that the Taj Mahal could avoid closing. ...

"McDevitt and Sweeney keep pounding their chests and spewing forth slanderous nonsense, but one overriding fact is perfectly clear: The Taj Mahal is quickly running out of money and will almost certainly close," Icahn said. "Reprehensibly, the union, instead of working with and trying to help the company to keep the Taj Mahal alive, is instead doing everything to destroy the possibility of saving the jobs of almost 3,000 employees."

If it closes, the Taj will be the fifth gambling hall to do so in Atlantic City this year. The four closings have cost the city about 8,000 jobs.