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Doubling Down in Atlantic City
Reed, Adolph
http://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/08/atlantic-city-trump-icahn-union-strike-bankruptcyDate Written: 2016-08-11 Publisher: Jacobin Year Published: 2016 Resource Type: Article Cx Number: CX22176 The casino workers' strike at the Trump Taj Mahal Casino is a defining battle for American labor. Abstract: - Excerpt: In Atlantic City right now workers at the Trump Taj Mahal casino hotel, members of UNITE HERE Local 54, are waging a struggle that should make it one of those crystallizing flashpoints that garner national attention and mobilize support from the entire labor movement, progressives, and working people at large. Such flashpoints arise only occasionally in workers' struggles for justice. In living memory, for example, Eastern Airlines, PATCO, Pittston, the Decatur wars, UPS, and most recently Verizon are among those that have attained that status. Those flashpoints of national concern and mobilization occur when what particular groups of workers are fighting for and against connects with broader tendencies and concerns in workplaces and the society in general. Downsizing, speedup, outsourcing, privatization, capital flight, unsafe working conditions, and profitable employers' demands for concessions that imperil workers' standard of living are all among conditions that have triggered those moments. The striking Trump Taj Mahal workers are involved in precisely such a fundamental struggle now, one that should resonate far and wide among American workers and their unions. Subject Headings |