‘Food Fight’ film digs into dispute at grocery chain
BOSTON — One of the most remarkable work stoppages in U.S. labor history will soon be the subject of a documentary film.
“Food Fight: Inside the Battle for Market Basket” is scheduled to be released in the fall, said director Jay Childs, a New Hampshirebased filmmaker who’s been working on the project for two years.
The film is about the yearslong power struggle between cousins Arthur T. Demoulas and Arthur S. Demoulas that came to a head last summer when thousands of nonunion workers at the Tewksbury, Mass.-based supermarket chain walked off the job — not because they were looking for better pay or benefits but because they wanted their boss back.
Longtime President Arthur T. Demoulas had been fired after a faction of the company’s board led by Arthur S. Demoulas took control. The workers feared the company would be sold to some faceless conglomerate that would put the financial interests of shareholders ahead of workers and shoppers.
The company, founded nearly a century ago by the cousins’ grandfather, came to a halt. Loyal customers sided with the workers and boycotted. Stores remained open but went unstocked. The governors of two states intervened.
Childs knew Market Basket workers revered Arthur T. Demoulas for his belief that a family business should treat its workers as family.
But he did not understand how deep that loyalty was when he went to an appearance by Arthur T. Demoulas at a new store and watched as it took Demoulas 20 minutes to walk a few feet from his car to a flatbed truck to make a speech. He was mobbed.
“It was a cross between a rock star and a papal visit,” Childs said.
Childs interviewed company employees who organized the work stoppage, customers and outside experts. But he hasn’t gotten an interview with either of the Arthurs. He doubts he’ll get Arthur S. Demoulas but hopes he can get Arthur T. Demoulas in time to include him in the film.
One of the workers interviewed for the film was Steve Paulenka, an operations supervisor who started as a bagger 40 years ago. Paulenka said he stayed loyal to Arthur T. Demoulas because Demoulas always remained loyal to workers.
“We played up the loyalty aspect to our people, and this film is about that loyalty,” he said.
Kevin Griffin, publisher of The Griffin Report, a food industry trade journal, is curious to see the movie.
“It was remarkable because it was one of those stories where everybody won,” he said.
A year after the dispute, the company is thriving, Griffin said.
Market Basket, now with 75 stores in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine, is on track to reach $4.5 billion in sales this year, about the same or slightly better than last year, he said.