READING — Five Market Basket employees on Friday said a leadership void at the 90-store grocery chain has spawned surveillance and bullying and created a climate of distrust and disarray at its corporate headquarters in Tewksbury.
Store operations supervisor Valerie Polito, a 35-year Market Basket employee whose duties include investigating allegations of harassment and discrimination, appeared outside in the Reading Market Basket parking lot with two current employees, Christine McCarthy (customer relations, 14 years) and Jillian Evans (payroll 20 years) and two suspended employees Esteban Alvarez (operations, 30 years) and Adam Deschene (operations, 18 years).
Polito said they had told her about finger-pointing and brow-beating they had been subjected to in the aftermath of the suspension of CEO Arthur T. Demoulas and his management team on May 28 over allegations that they were planning a work stoppage.
Demoulas’ two top executives, Joe Schmidt, 39 years at the company, and Tom Gordon, with 50 years, were first suspended and then fired on July 22 by the board for insubordination.
McCarthy said on Friday that she was interrogated by company deli director Michael Kettenbach — son of family shareholder Frances Demoulas — who accused McCarthy of leaking a July 24 letter that Methuen Mayor D.J. Beauregard had written in support of Arthur Demoulas, aka Artie T.
McCarthy said she did not do this and it was reported in the media that Beauregard had shared the letter on his Facebook page.
McCarthy, who is five months pregnant and whose husband also works for Market Basket, said she was questioned recently over why she went into Evans’ office when she went there to ask about employment benefits.
Evans says there has been a sea change at corporate headquarters, and it is no longer a place with an atmosphere of safety, confidence and goodwill.
“This is not Market Basket, and we are headed for a serious struggle — and it is coming,” Evans said.
Polito told the media on Friday that on July 18 she sent the Market Basket board of directors a letter describing harassment and intimidation at corporate offices and asked for a chance to meet with them.
The board’s response, she said, called for its legal firm, Quinn Emanuel, which has been investigating allegations that Arthur Demoulas and others were planning a work stoppage, to join the meeting, on Aug. 21.
Polito says she will attend but not in the presence of a representative from the law firm, which Arthur Demoulas’ spokesperson said has conducted a one-sided investigation of work stoppage allegations intended to sully Demoulas’ reputation.
Meanwhile, board of directors member Michael Keyes says in response to Polito’s letter that the board believes the letter is a public relations maneuver.
“We believe that her letter is part of Arthur Demoulas’s ruthless, no-holds-barred attack on Market Basket, the board, and even the majority stockholders,” Keyes states. “Mr. Demoulas is reported to have said on an earlier occasion that if he can’t be in charge, he’d rather burn it all down, referring to Market Basket.”
Keyes said the family-owned company is a high-functioning operation and running well.
The company’s majority shareholders are three Demoulas sisters, Frances, Glorianne and Caren, who own 60% of the company.
Their brother, Artie T., is a minority shareholder with 28% ownership.
The rest of the company shares are in trust.
The board of directors and Arthur Demoulas have agreed to sit before a mediator to try to iron out differences in a Sept. 3 meeting.