Business & Tech

Salem's Senator Signs Letter Supporting Market Basket Boycott

The state senator and former Salem City Councilor supports a boycott of Market Basket while the grocery store's workers push to have former CEO Arthur T. Demoulas reinstated.

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State Sen. Joan Lovely (D-Salem) is backing a measure that calls for shoppers to boycott Market Basket grocery stores while workers push to have the company’s former CEO reinstated.

Market Basket’s board of directors fired CEO Arthur T. Demoulas last month, and replaced him with co-CEOs Felicia Thornton and James Gooch.

Demoulas has the backing of a large number of Market Basket employees, who on Friday demonstrated at the Tewksbury headquarters and again on Monday held a demonstration at the Tewksbury store, all in support of Arthur T. Demoulas.

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The demonstrations came after a group of workers gave the co-CEOs a Thursday ultimatum to bring back Arthur T. The deadline came and went and he was not reinstated.

Lovely signed on to a letter by state Sen. Barry Finegold, (D-Andover) who is also a candidate for state treasurer and whose district includes the company’s headquarters in Tewksbury, reports WHAV radio.

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In Finegold’s statement, he said: “Market Basket has been able to keep prices low while delivering quality products to mainly underserved areas,” adding: “The current actions of the board and officers is one motivated by corporate greed and will only serve to destroy the legacy the Demoulas family has worked generations to establish.”

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