Market Basketball Wars: Senior executives who address shooting at press conference
The fired market basket executives are expected to share their side to learn about Wednesday’s press conference.
The Market Basket Board said Joseph Schmidt and Tom Gordon were terminated for making false and derogatory comments about the Market Basket and communicated inappropriately with colleagues.
The board also claimed that after an internal investigation, they found that two men encouraged people to cause general job disruptions, reminiscent of a 2014 employee strike.
Operations Director Joseph Schmidt and grocery Director Tom Gordon were both terminated in their posts Tuesday.
The two were suspended for the first time on May 28 after accusing them of planning to cause job disruptions to show support for suspended CEO Arthur T. Demoulas.
Market Basket said the investigation found evidence that Schmidt and Gordon directly encouraged employees to slow down grocery stores and violated their supervisors.
The company also said Schmidt mistakenly told colleagues that if Arthur T. was removed from office as CEO, they would lose bonuses and profit sharing.
The investigation highlighted comments about the demoulas sisters, who are major shareholders in the market basket.
These include “Three girls are evil,” “choose both sides wisely” and “the three sisters tend to get the boss and his kids out of here, and we have to be together.”
Citing Schmidt tells a colleague “Make sure[he] Come out from the right side,” said the subordinate: “You have a wife and children. I want to make sure you know to stay in this. ”
Schmidt and Gordon must know that their actions will lead to this outcome, the board said in a statement.
Two former executives plan to comment at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Reading Market Basket location.
Market Basket CEO Arthur T. Demoulas is still on paid administrative leave.
Demoulas was on leave in late May because he had been considering leading a shutdown that could disrupt stores in the area.
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