Gov. Patrick Urges Market Basket Workers To Return While Deal Gets Done

BOSTON (AP) – Gov. Deval Patrick is urging Market Basket employees to go back to work while a deal to sell the chain is hammered out.

Patrick told reporters Wednesday that he's spoken to the chairman of the board and with ousted former CEO Arthur T. Demoulas.

"I think everybody is interested in a sale," Patrick said. "My understanding is they either have an understanding or are very close to a price."

Protesting workers are demanding that Arthur T. Demoulas be reinstated. He was fired in June by a board controlled by his rival cousin, Arthur S. Demoulas, and has been negotiating to buy the company.

The governor said his greatest concern is the supermarket chain workers. He said it's worrisome that "associates who are basically powerless in this may be held hostage to a private dispute, frankly within a family."

"I don't think that's appropriate and I think it's important for the shareholders to know that I and others don't think that's appropriate," he said.

Patrick also said that it's entirely within the power of protesting employers to stabilize the company by going back to work.

"I think it's important for the workers to understand, for 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," he said. "Usually companies are able to buy and sell each other without workers walking off the job and saying they're not going to work unless they get the boss of their choice."

The independent directors of the Demoulas issued a statement later Wednesday afternoon applauding the governor's call for workers to return and adding, We have now gone five days since we offered a solution that would return everyone back to work to support the company including the former management team. To date, we still have not received a response."

Patrick had largely stayed out of the high-profile dispute until last Friday when he wrote to Market Basket's board of directors urging them to quickly resolve the leadership question. In a letter to the board, Patrick wrote that he's not choosing sides but, "by any measure, the disruption that followed your recent change in CEO has gotten out of hand."

At the time Patrick also offered any help he or members of his senior staff could supply to find a solution to the dispute roiling the company.

Patrick said members of the board took him up on the offer and reached out to him.

He described the tone of his separate conversations with the chairman of the board and with Arthur T. Demoulas as "civil and respectful" even as he acknowledged that the issues that divide the ownership of the supermarket chain run deep.

On Tuesday, Market Basket said it had sent a final notice to those distribution and headquarters workers protesting the firing of Demoulas to return to work by Friday.

The company said Tuesday that letters were sent to about 200 workers it says haven't reported to work since July 17. The company said earlier workers who didn't return by Aug. 4 would be replaced, and held job fairs last week.

Thousands of employees have protested, and some customers have boycotted. The distribution interruption left most of the company's 71 stores empty of meat and produce. The chain has stores in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine.

The offer from Arthur T. Demoulas for the private company has not been disclosed, but an industry publication has estimated the company's value at up to $3.5 billion

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

MORE LOCAL NEWS FROM CBS BOSTON