Today's stories from the soap opera called Market Basket…
• The Boston Globe reports that the Lowell Spinners,the A-level minor league affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, is calling its home game next Wednesday an "Artie T. Party," after Arthur T. Demoulas, the deposed Market Basket CEO who is trying to buy the 50.5 percent of the company he does not own from his cousin, Arthur S. Demoulas, and has been supported in his efforts both by protesting employees and boycotting customers.
According to the story, "Workers are eligible to buy tickets to the game for only $4—a homage, according to a team statement, to the 4 percent that former CEO Arthur T. Demoulas knocked off Market Basket prices this year. The team also plans to invite those associates onto the baseball field for a parade before the game commences … Spinners President and General Manager Tim Bawmann called the decision a way to honor the community members who took it upon themselves to leave work and protest the ousting of the beloved former CEO."
“It’s not about who’s right and who’s wrong,” Bawmann tells the Globe. “This is about recognizing the role Market Basket plays in our community and the invaluable role the associates play within our community. This is about giving them a night to relax, enjoy a ballgame and be entertained."
• Meanwhile, the Globe also reports that Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has urged Market Basket employees to go back to work as negotiations for a sale of the company continue, saying that a return to work was in their "best interests." The Market Basket board of directors applauded the statement, saying, in part:
All we seek is to get our Associates back to work earning a steady income so our customers can go back to shopping. In return, we can’t offer a resolution to the deal negotiations, but have and will continue to offer a way to return to normal while negotiations continue. Playing with fire that will hurt us all – Associates, customers, and communities – is a no-win situation, and we all need it to end.
It’s well past the time when anyone can frame the crisis as “us vs. them,” or a “family feud.” There are too many families being impacted by this. Rather, for good or ill, many are being asked to sacrifice their pay, their jobs, and their ability to shop at affordable prices in their own neighborhoods, against the hope that it will help one side achieve a preferred business deal rather than another. No one should ever hold 25,000 associates, 2 million shoppers and our local economies as leverage in a business negotiation.
• The Boston Globe reports that the Lowell Spinners,the A-level minor league affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, is calling its home game next Wednesday an "Artie T. Party," after Arthur T. Demoulas, the deposed Market Basket CEO who is trying to buy the 50.5 percent of the company he does not own from his cousin, Arthur S. Demoulas, and has been supported in his efforts both by protesting employees and boycotting customers.
According to the story, "Workers are eligible to buy tickets to the game for only $4—a homage, according to a team statement, to the 4 percent that former CEO Arthur T. Demoulas knocked off Market Basket prices this year. The team also plans to invite those associates onto the baseball field for a parade before the game commences … Spinners President and General Manager Tim Bawmann called the decision a way to honor the community members who took it upon themselves to leave work and protest the ousting of the beloved former CEO."
“It’s not about who’s right and who’s wrong,” Bawmann tells the Globe. “This is about recognizing the role Market Basket plays in our community and the invaluable role the associates play within our community. This is about giving them a night to relax, enjoy a ballgame and be entertained."
• Meanwhile, the Globe also reports that Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has urged Market Basket employees to go back to work as negotiations for a sale of the company continue, saying that a return to work was in their "best interests." The Market Basket board of directors applauded the statement, saying, in part:
All we seek is to get our Associates back to work earning a steady income so our customers can go back to shopping. In return, we can’t offer a resolution to the deal negotiations, but have and will continue to offer a way to return to normal while negotiations continue. Playing with fire that will hurt us all – Associates, customers, and communities – is a no-win situation, and we all need it to end.
It’s well past the time when anyone can frame the crisis as “us vs. them,” or a “family feud.” There are too many families being impacted by this. Rather, for good or ill, many are being asked to sacrifice their pay, their jobs, and their ability to shop at affordable prices in their own neighborhoods, against the hope that it will help one side achieve a preferred business deal rather than another. No one should ever hold 25,000 associates, 2 million shoppers and our local economies as leverage in a business negotiation.
- KC's View:
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At this point, because the company's employees believe that Arthur T. Demoulas will invest in the company and Arthur S. Demoulas is more interested in taking money out of the company, it is hard for me to believe that suddenly the employees are going to give up the leverage they've developed for themselves and just go back to work.
Rather than urging a return to normal, Patrick ought to be calling for the two sides to conclude their negotiations.
One thing you have to say that the Market Basket employees - they have cojones. They are taking ownership of their own situation and the company's future, and they're not letting go.
