At Market Basket, the Benevolent Boss Is Back. Should We Cheer?

http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/17128/at_market_basket_the_benevolent_boss_is_back._should_we_cheer



Market Basket's flagship store in Chelsea, Massachusetts. (Wikimedia Commons)

BY JULIA WONG SATURDAY, AUG 30, 2014, 2:50 PM

Lots of executives may claim to think of their employees as family. But it’s the rare boss who actually treats his workers as well as his blood relatives. The 25,000 employees of Market Basket, a chain of 71 New England grocery stores, see company president Arthur T. Demoulas as that boss. At least, that’s the story one gets from the press coverage of the bitter power struggle and chain-wide strike that has been frontpage news in New England all summer.

Ousted in June, Demoulas regained control of the company this week in what’s being hailed as a victory for workers. But is it?

Family feud
Since 2008, Demoulas has presided over the chain, which is known for its low prices, exemplary treatment of employees, and, as the Boston Globe put it recently, “one of the longest, costliest, and nastiest court battles in [Massachusetts] legal history.”

The feud was between two Greek-American cousins, both named Arthur, and both jostling to occupy the company throne. The chain was founded in 1916 by a Greek immigrant couple, Arthur and Efrasine Demoulas, who later sold the company to two of their sons. Those sons are the fathers of the two Arthurs. Arthur S. sued Arthur T.’s father in 1990 for allegedly defrauding his side of the family of their shares in the company. After years of litigation, a judge granted 50.5 percent ownership of the company to Arthur S.’s side of the family. However, Arthur T. and his father maintained direct control of the company for years, in part thanks to a shareholder on Arthur S.’s side of the family who voted with Arthur T. in a 2008 Board of Directors vote.

FULL feature story at link.