New England's Grocery Store

     About a century ago a Greek immigrant opened a little food market in Lowell, MA. Many years later this passed to his two sons, one of whom passed away early. By this time the one location had expanded to numerous and were full supermarkets. An incredibly costly and prolonged legal battle ensued. Eventually the battle passed on to the grandsons. One actively worked in and built the business while the other involved himself in different investments. Finally in this year the CEO of the 71 store, 25,000 employee chain, called Arthur T to distinguish himself from his cousin Arthur S, was fired.
     Amazingly the employees many of whom could not have known Arthur T personally rallied around him. All of the warehouse workers and company truckers went on strike, 68 of the 71 store managers said they would not work for anyone other than Arthur T, and the rank and file workers, most of them part-time joined the protest. For six weeks these non-unionized workers held firm and united against every inducement by a wealthy board of directors and new CEO's. Business essentially ceased as the public got into the act, refusing to patronize the chain.
    After considerable negotiating the offer of the ousted CEO to purchase the 50.5% of the company that he did not own was accepted. Workers who had been fired, laid off or had not received a paycheck for six weeks rushed back to work to stock shelves and prepare for opening for business.
   Today I went in to see how things were going and pick up a few items. The deli worker i spoke to said business was great. I replied that i was amazed at what the employees had done. She said they could not have done it without the customers. A true victory for New England, and an example of what unity based on care for people can accomplish.