At 5 o’clock Thursday, a gaggle of Market Basket employees walked out of their Storrs Street store. They were heading to Red River Theatres to re-experience the summer that they – along with 25,000 other employees – walked off the job to win back their CEO, Arthur T. Demoulas.
The group joined several dozen Market Basket employees who watched exclusive screenings of Food Fight: Inside the Battle for Market Basket Thursday night. The full-length documentary, made by Exeter filmmaker Jay Childs, will be playing for the general public at Red River Theatres through May 5.
On Thursday, as he walked across the supermarket parking lot toward the theater, Market Basket employee of 22 years Wayne Curtiss talked about what he expected.
“Kind of reliving the moment,” he said. “And praying that we never go through it again.”
The beginning of the documentary captured what that “it” was: Arthur T. Demoulas being ousted by his cousin, Arthur S. Demoulas, on June 23, 2014; employee strikes and rallies and customer boycotts and empty store shelves; and a summer of uncertainty for thousands of employees working for the New England grocery chain.
Ed Sweeney, who’s worked for Market Basket for 37 years and is currently the dairy manager for the Storrs Street store, said he was just interested to watch what happened the summer of 2014 as he “held down the fort” at his own store.
“Maybe there’s something I missed along the way,” Sweeney said. “But after 37 years, I think we know most of it.”
Food Fight made an effort to go deep into the store’s history and character to explain the split in family ownership and to show why workers were so upset when Arthur T. was taken out.
It documented how, under Arthur T., many workers start as teenagers and are still working there years later. It examined the way the store’s environment rewards hard work and expects employees to be professional. And it took time to illustrate examples of Market Basket taking care of its employees, like helping one truck driver finance the purchase of a home.
And then Food Fight gets to the meat of the story: the board tilting balance to allow Arthur S. to take control of the business, the ousting of Arthur T., and then the massive fallout with employees and customers.
For the rest of this story, visit concordmonitor.com.
Show times for Wednesday and Thursday: 2, 5:30 and 7:45 p.m.
