Despite urging from Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, Market Basket workers say they're not intending to back down.
Four weeks into the Market Basket stalemate, Patrick significantly escalated his role in trying to bring it to an end on Wednesday.
"Frankly, my greatest concern right now is with the people who work for Market Basket, the associates. They have it entirely within their power to stabilize the company by going back to work. And I hope that they can see a way to do that while the buyer and seller work out the final terms of the transaction," Governor Patrick said.
But for Woburn store grocery manager Andrew Parshley, the governor's request, which echoes the so-called independent directors of the Demoulas Board of Directors, is a non-starter and a loss of leverage without former CEO Artie T. back at the helm.
"Is it caving?" Parshley said. "Yes, because we started this project with one intention. It's getting Arthur T. Demoulas back and if we do that without the end solution that we want, yes we've caved."
At 5 p.m. - the traditionally busy end-of-work time to pick up some groceries on your way home - the Market Basket in Woburn is lightly staffed, with Parshley being one of only 11 workers in the entire store. A month ago, there would have been 200 workers on a Wednesday.
"We don't receive regular deliveries. All the cashiers, three of the guys that I have up here would be filling the shelves right now if we had loads to put up. We can't get loads out of the warehouse. Scheduled for 3700 pieces today. Didn't get it. Nothing," Parshley added.
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Shelves are still empty at stores, which is why Governor Patrick is urging workers to come back and customers to follow.
"I think it's important for the workers to understand, the associates to understand, that they can go right back to work. And they would do a service to the people served by Market Basket, all the customers, the communities in which the shops operate, by doing so," Patrick said.
But after the governor met with all sides, a statement appeared on the We are Market Basket website: "For the few who may be confused, our message remains clear: we will go back to work when Arthur T Demoulas goes back to work with full authority or when the deal is in place to sell him the company. We will not go back to work when the Governor, the Board or any other entity tells us to."
What was not asked of Governor Patrick Wednesday was if there is a conflict with his getting involved and his wife Diane's position as co-managing partner of Ropes & Gray, the Boston law firm that represents Arthur S. Demoulas.
