Job-saver Icahn sets Taj deal: sources

Carl Icahn is saving Atlantic City’s secondbiggest casino, the Trump Taj Mahal, The Post has learned.

The bankrupt, nearly 25yearold casino was scheduled to close its doors Saturday morning. The move will save 3,000 jobs.

The union representing roughly 1,100 casino workers, which had been seen as a stumbling block toward keeping the Taj Mahal open, is expected Wednes day evening or Thursday morning to execute a new agreement with management, two sources said.

Icahn, the billionaire investor who owns all of the $292 million in Taj Mahal bank loans, conceded to the union’s demands to restore all work rules after earlier agreeing to bring back just health care and some pension benefits, said two sources close to the talks.

The union, Unite Here 54, which has been operating without a contract since Sept. 15, got pretty much what it wanted with only hours before a preshutdown deadline, sources said.

Icahn had been fighting to have the right to outsource some services, including nonunion restaurant workers.

The union’s lone concession to Icahn was allowing him to pay pension benefits to a plan only tied to the Taj, and, perhaps, the neighboring Tropicana casino that he owns, instead of one linked to several struggling Atlantic City casinos.

In exchange for Icahn providing the cash to keep the Taj Mahal open, the state is expected to kick in roughly $150 million in tax breaks, sources said.

The hope is that the measure will pass through the legislature on Thursday.

Gov. Chris Christie, through his gaming czar Jon Hanson, helped to facilitate the deal, sources said.

Icahn is expected to exchange his debt plus $100 million in cash, which is needed to operate the casino, for ownership of the Taj Mahal, sources said.