Pressure ratchets up, but workers stand ground

Sarah Green of Barrington holds a sign for current co-CEOs at the entrance to the Rochester Store. (Harrison Thorp photos)

ROCHESTER - While Market Basket corporate execs haven’t threatened layoffs of full-timers at their Rochester store and others, about 200 workers at the company’s Tewksbury headquarters and Andover distribution center who walked off their jobs nearly four weeks ago have been told to return by Friday.

The company had already threatened to replace defiant employees who hadn’t returned by Aug. 4, and after last week’s three-day job fair, could be poised to make good on their earlier promise.

Meanwhile, workers at the Rochester store and 70 others in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine have been faithfully reporting to work every shift even though there is little work to do with more than 95 percent of the stores’ customers continuing their boycotts of the beleaguered regional supermarket giant.

Gordon Pike, an assistant manager at the Rochester store, said on Tuesday that he and other employees are deeply appreciative of loyal customers who are taking a financial hit by buying their food at more expensive markets to show their solidarity with the Market Basket employee uprising, which has led to worldwide coverage by news organizations.

Pike, who lives in Newmarket and has been with the Rochester store for four years and the company for 31, said a solution has to be found soon so that irreparable harm is not done to the Market Basket brand. He picked Aug. 22 as a tipping point, adding if nothing has been resolved by then, the ship may not be able to right itself.

Nearby Pike, part-time laid off bagger Sarah Green of Barrington carried a sign proclaiming she’d get her last paycheck on Thursday, which coincidentally is her birthday. She said without the extra money, it would be a lot harder for her and her husband, who are both on disability, to make ends meet.

She also said she hadn’t been told when to expect any profit-sharing disbursals due her. Part timers at the store were told not to report to work beginning earlier this week, due to lack of work.

The bread aisle at Market Basket remains bare as a customer boycott approaches the four-week mark.

Inside the store, full timers were picking up where recently laid off part timers left off, mopping floors and cleaning shelves.

The store was quieter than even last week. Four or five customers were seen ambling about the store but they had no carts and didn’t seem to be shopping.

The stores have been in upheaval since their former CEO Arthur T. Demoulas, belovedly known as Artie. T. by loyal employees, was ousted in June.

The ouster, orchestrated by his cousin, Arthur S. Demoulas, is seen by employees as an attack on the current generous pay structure and as a threat on the company’s long-held position as a bastion of low prices.

The two cousins have been feuding for more than 20 years over control and direction of the company.

Employees fear Arthur S. will dismantle the current worker pay and business model and replace it with lower wages and higher prices.

Customers have bought into the employee struggle and stayed away from the store for nearly a month, resulting in millions of dollars of lost revenue.

Meanwhile, offers to buy the trouble company, including one by Artie T., continue to be reviewed by the corporation’s board of directors.