One can only thank the clueless greed-heads now running Market Basket for their unintended remake of It's a Wonderful Life for a whole new generation. I want to acknowledge flower and magpie02141 for diarying the details of the story. There is also a story on the local NPR website with some interesting links. My diary is more polemical than those stories, because the situation just screams for it.
It is truly (Frank) Capra-esque that one guy (former CEO, Arthur T. DeMoulas) can be so "beloved" (an unheard of description for a CEO) by the "townspeople" that his downfall at the hands of his cash-me-out cousin, Arthur S. DeMoulas (hereafter referred to as Mr. Potter), set off a spontaneous strike, a consumer boycott, and denouncements by over 30 state legislators. Newspapers, including the right-wing rag, the Boston Herald, have slammed the firing of "Artie T.". Business consultants have described the new management as "tone-deaf" and "disastrous". Did I mention that the new management comes from Radio Shack and K-Mart and are experts at selling off companies? Did I mention the vindictive firing of long-time managers? (Which a business consultant called "making martyrs".)
That's the briefest statement of the facts. Below the truck exhaust, I want to explain why this is an important moment for leftwing America.
In many ways, Market Basket (MB) looks like a scene from 1950s America. The local kids doing bagging and shelving. No frequent-shopper cards or marketing gimmicks, just the lowest prices around. No union, because the workers trust Artie T. Big-time profit sharing plus a four percent rebate to all customers for the entire year of 2014 - and still the company makes a solid profit.
It is this model of win-win that is being smashed by Artie S. because he isn't satisfied with doing well. He wants it all. Isn't that the mantra of the corporate plague that is devouring America?
The bottom line here is that one guy (and his four or five handpicked allies on the board) has decided that MB is his property to dispose of as he sees fit. What about 25,000 loyal, un-unionized workers whose pay and benefits will be drastically cut or who will be summarily fired? What about communities counting on brand new stores that Mr. Potter refuses to open or less profitable stores that he sold off? They are irrelevant. You couldn't paint a clearer picture of the asset-stripping, profit-skimming, unsustainable business practices that have ruined America since 1980.
And, surprise, surprise, Fox News, that savior of the common man, has nothing to say about this. They will give wall to wall coverage to five idiots in teabag hats or three dangerous idiots waving around semi-automatic weapons. But 5,000 people at a rally, standing up to corporate greed? Zilch. Nada. Zip. Forbes Magazine only talked about "do workers have a say in who should be the boss?"
The locals in MA and NH are directly aware of what is going on. MB stores are empty, while the competitors stores have been stripped bare. The local news carries this story front page. But it hasn't gone national...
because it is like a grocery store version of Fahrenheit 911 - it tells the truth about the completely shitty state of corporate looting in our country. Because, amazingly, it hits every talking point on what is wrong with this country. The drumbeat of 911 was broadcast to everyone with constant spin. The society was saturated with propaganda to be afraid. MB is a story that has saturated the New England region. People experience it directly when they go to shop, and everyone shops for groceries. Strangers talk to one another and share their solidarity with the workers.
This is the kind of moment political organizers spend years trying to generate, and it has been handed to us on a plate just when the country is completely fed up with the direction it has taken.
I suppose its sexier to diary about Gaza, Ukraine, or the refugee children. But this is bread and butter. This is local. This is a high, hanging curve ball that the labor-friendly left needs to hit out of the park.
Please do what you can to make this story go national.
Thank you.