Arthur T. Demoulas supporters fear breakup of Market Basket ‘family’

CHELSEA – Terry McCarthy’s daughter, now 22, was fighting for her life following an accident two years ago when his boss, Arthur T. Demoulas, asked him if the hospital she was in had the ability to treat her injury.

McCarthy, manager of Market Basket’s Middleton store, can’t forget what the company’s then-CEO of DeMoulas Super Markets, Inc. asked him next: “Do we need to move her?”

Demoulas’ use of the word “we” spoke to all the reasons McCarthy has stayed with the company for the past 34 years to build his career. Everyone who works for Market Basket is part of one family, McCarthy said.

That’s why the ousting of Arthur T. Demoulas and two other executives by the board of directors on Monday devastated employees, reducing all managers at the Nashua store on Daniel Webster Highway to tears, said Christine Doubleday, the store’s bakery manager.

“I just feel like a family being broken up,” Doubleday, a 20-year employee, whose parents also worked for the company for decades, said as she stood among hundreds of Market Basket workers protesting the firing of the top managers in the parking lot of the Chelsea store on Tuesday. Some of the company’s senior managers have already resigned to show solidarity with the embattled Demoulas and other fired executives. But many workers said they will stay put and help fight to bring back the ousted leaders.

“I’m not done. This is not the end!” Tom Trainor, who works at DeMoulas headquarters in Tewksbury, told the crowd from atop a platform, inciting applause.

“We are not ready to give up,” agreed Mark Owens, manager of Stratham, N.H. store.

One day after the DeMoulas Super Markets board of directors announced it replaced Demoulas with Felicia Thornton and James “Jim” Gooch, experienced retail and grocery executives, hundreds of workers swarmed in front of the Chelsea store to protest. The board’s decision came one year after Arthur T. Demoulas lost majority support on the board to his estranged cousin, Arthur S. Demoulas. The board also fired Bill Marsden, Market Basket’s operations director, and Joseph Rockwell, vice president of grocery sales and merchandising.

Holding placards bearing messages like, “We got your back, Mr. D” and “Arthur T. Demoulas is our President,” the workers swore loyalty to Arthur T. Demoulas, who they say has put employees first while increasing the number of stores by 15, to 71, and increasing annual sales to more than $4 billion.

Addressing the crowd from the top of the platform, Dave McLean, who worked his way up from being a Billerica store grocery bagger to the company’s operations manager over the past 38 years, said he resigned on Monday. He called the board of director’s firing “pure injustice.”

“They care more about customers and associates than they care about shareholders’ wealth,” McLean said of Arthur T. Demoulas, Marsden and Rockwell. He said DeMoulas Super Markets was built on respect.

“It’s an icon of what is good” in America, McLean said of the business when it was under Arthur T. Demoulas’ leadership.

Many workers called Demoulas the best CEO to work for.

“Arthur T. Demoulas fights for every one of us,” John Sevastis, a Market Basket worker who grew up in Lowell, said as he addressed the crowd. He said he did not trust that the new management will understand or care about the company’s culture.

“They are going to ruin our company!” Sevastis said, prompting applause.

McLean said he has expressed his concerns about the management feud in his recent letter to the board of directors but did not receive a reply.

“Those men are not going to walk alone,” McLean said of the reason for his resignation after the rally.

Several people in senior management positions have resigned in the wake of the management firing, according to the company. While store workers keep the business running as usual, “the morale is pretty bad,” Trainor said.

“People are very upset and worried. They are consumed with everything that is going on,” Owens said.

Doubleday, a mother of five from Merrimack, N.H., who is the breadwinner for her family, said seeing the managers whom she has known since she was born leave is not only disheartening but also left her scared about her own future.

Samantha Normandin, who has worked at Market Basket’s store on Water Street in Fitchburg for the past seven years, also said she is concerned about what the future holds. She wants to do what she can to support the movement to bring back Arthur T. Demoulas, Normandin said.

Since the management feud surfaced some time ago, groups of workers have rallied around Arthur T. Demoulas by creating a Facebook page and picketing. A group of workers, consumers and vendors have also petitioned to keep Arthur T. Demoulas in power through change.org.

Workers gathering for the Tuesday rally said that they did not know yet what their next step will be. What they know for sure, however, is that they will continue to fight to bring back the fired leaders, they said.