Posted on 08/08/2014 8:45:39 PM PDT by Citizen Zed
The battle for Market Basket has at last engulfed Governor Deval Patrick.
Patrick penned a letter to the board of directors of the company Friday offering to lend a hand to solve the dispute that has left supermarket shelves empty and many employees without paychecks, the Boston Globe reports.
According to the Globe, Patrick noted that he would not take sides, but would offer any help to resolve the standoff and return employees to work.
“By any measure, the disruption caused by your recent change in CEO has gotten out of hand, and I am writing to urge you to find a prompt resolution,” Patrick wrote. “Your failure to resolve this matter is not only hurting the company’s brand and business, but also many innocent and relatively powerless workers whose livelihoods depend on you.”
The language was unusually harsh as Patrick seemed to explicitly condemn the conduct of the board thus far. It puts more pressure than before on the Market Basket CEOs to get the company up and running once again.
Governor Deval Patrick has until now insisted that he would remain above the fray, calling the battle a private matter and flatly refusing to intervene.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
i don’t know how accurate or biased this story is
I find it amazing this boycott is having such an effect. Driving by any Market Basket shows empty parking lots.
If only they (customers and employeees) would protest government policies taking money out of their pockets with the same enthusiasm.
i don’t know how accurate or biased this story is
It's on the level. The employees love Arthur T.
I've heard the sentiments cited in the story echoed in calls to the Howie Carr show. And I've even spoken with a few employees myself. The stores are festooned with signs like the one shown in the article.
It is very accurate. Market Basket, I believe, is the largest privately owned grocery store chain in the country. They are a low cost store. Their prices rival Costco and Wal-Mart. They are non union. The thing that the long time employees are fighting for is their PROFIT SHARING. Most employees that have been with the company for 25 years or more are millionaires because of the profit sharing. They are worried the new ownership will sell the company or get rid of the profit sharing and install a 401K program like most other companies have. This strike is the first of its kind. If successful, people will be talking about it in business classes for years to come.
I do all my shopping there. I have not been in a store since it started. I hope they are successful and do not get bought out.
They are not asking for higher wages. Nor are they asking for additional benefits. All they want is their CEO back and to keep what they already have.
Also, believe it or not, Market Basket has a profit sharing plan that cascades even down to the lowliest employees. Yes, the part-time teenagers bagging your groceries and shagging cars in the parking lot qualified for and received profit-sharing bonuses.
How could they do all that and keep their costs down? Well they had the most loyal workforce in the supermarket industry. Unlike most supermarket chains that are staffed with minimum wage losers who are only good at shrugging their shoulders, banging in sick and saying "not my job", employees went to Market Basket to have a career. Most of their store managers started off as baggers and cashiers. Even much of the front end staff have years of experience and are genuinely happy to work there. Their name badges state how many years they have been on the job and a good many of them have 10 years or more. So what that means is that Market Basket had professional people at virtually every position which allowed them to do more with less employees - thus keeping the costs to the consumer down.
So not your average labor dispute but a good example of capitalism at work. The feuding owners of this supermarket chain were sitting on a gold mine and they are allowing it to slip away in order that they can "sock it to" those who have disrespected them.
Most likely at this point, Market Basket gets sold off to some big chain and they turn into just another faceless supermarket conglomerate like Stop And Shop or Kroger.
You know what Gov? The business is not run for the employees. The business is run to make a profit. If an employee contributes enough to earn his keep, that is fine, but the company is not going to make itself over to please the employees when so many others want jobs.
Maybe the employees of Market Basket have a valid point.
The situation with Market Basket is much more complicated than that. In short order one part of the family that owns Market Basket has succeeded in alienating their employees, from top management down to the kids who bag groceries, their customers, the local media, and most local political leaders.
Due to the dispute, sales at the chain, which offers the lowest prices in the area and employs tens of thousands of people have reportedly fallen by 90%. Stores where normally you can't find a parking spot to shop are now empty. The effect on the public is significant, since for many families shopping at Market Basket allows them to afford much more food than they would otherwise be able to afford.
At this point the part of the family that has taken control of Market Basket has managed to turn their customers against them, and seems to think that somehow they can just replace all of their employees with new hires, and that everything will be fine and the customers will come back. Oh, and they can just raise the prices too since nobody will mind.
The employees realized that the new management was clueless and knew that their jobs would be lost in short order if the previous management wasn't returned to power. The customers have realized the same thing. So have many members of the media, and even the politicians like Gov. Patrick.
The public attention to Market Basket is about saving a successful local business which benefits society, and is highly profitable for its owners, from a few of its owners who are apparently acting based on their egos instead of sensible management methods.
well I say the bad guys who own the majority share have killed the goose that laid the golden eggs
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3190729/posts?page=6#6
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3190729/posts?page=9#9
As I’ve been saying since this all began there are cheaper alternatives like Aldi and Price Rite. This proves it!
http://www.consumerworld.org/pubs/supermarketsurvey2014prs.pdf
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