TEWKSBURY — The Market Basket board of administrators is searching for a restraining order in opposition to fired executives Joe Schmidt and Tom Gordon after they alleged Schmidt had damaged into the grocery chain’s Tewksbury headquarters and that the pair had repeatedly visited Market Basket areas in current weeks regardless of being banned from the entire firm’s properties.
In a press release Monday afternoon, Market Basket board of administrators member Steven Collins claimed Schmidt had been caught on video utilizing a grasp key to enter the corporate’s Tewksbury headquarters after hours.
“Market Basket associates are entitled to feel safe while performing their jobs whether at headquarters in Tewksbury or in stores. But in recent days, terminated executive Joseph Schmidt was documented on video after hours breaking and entering at the Tewksbury headquarters holding the master key that he has refused to return and moving around the offices totally unauthorized,” mentioned Collins within the assertion. “In addition, Schmidt and Gordon traveled to 23 stores in multiple states in recent days, not to celebrate someone’s retirement, as feigned in an earlier violation of their suspension, but to intimidate employees, to precipitate a work slowdown, employee walkout and customer boycott. That’s why we are asking for a restraining order to enforce what we have already requested in writing: stay away from Market Basket property and leave associates alone.”
Collins mentioned the pair “lost the privilege of being employed by Market Basket based upon recent past behavior.”
“This conduct by “men of integrity and honor” within the phrases of suspended CEO Arthur T. Demoulas goes manner past odd loyalty to a job or a boss. It’s in opposition to the legislation and crosses the road of acceptable habits,” Collins mentioned.
A submitting by Market Basket for a restraining order in opposition to Schmidt and Gordon in Lowell Superior Courtroom, for which a listening to has been scheduled for Thursday at 10 a.m.
Schmidt and Gordon had been positioned on administrative depart on Might 28, together with CEO Arthur T. Demoulas, Demoulas’ brother-in-law Gerard Lewis and his two kids, Madeline and Telemachus. Final month, Schmidt and Gordon had been formally fired, whereas Arthur T. intends to enter into mediation with the board of administrators that seeks to oust him.
The board has maintained the declare that Arthur T. and the others who had been suspended had been planning an worker walkout akin to what passed off in the summertime of 2014, when Arthur T. was fired by the board in favor of his cousin, Arthur S. Demoulas. Arthur T. would finally regain his publish as CEO after he and his three sisters, Glorianne, Frances and Caren Demoulas, purchased out the corporate from the Arthur S. facet of the household in a $1.5 billion deal.
Now, the board designees for Arthur T.’s sisters, Collins, Michael Keyes and Chair Jay Hachigian, are driving the newest push to oust the longtime CEO.
Within the submitting for the restraining order, the corporate accuses Schmidt and Gordon of searching for “to instill fear among current Market Basket associates that after they are restored to their prior positions, associates who cooperated with Market Basket management in their absence will be targeted for retribution.”
“Their goal in waging this campaign is to encourage associates to slow down their work, or even walk off the job, and to pressure Market Basket management to reinstate them and Mr. Demoulas. This Court’s immediate intervention is necessary to stop Defendants from trespassing on Market Basket property as part of their unlawful and escalating campaign to disrupt the Company’s business operations,” the court docket submitting learn.
Gordon and Schmidt had admitted to beforehand coming into Market Basket shops since their preliminary suspensions, however they mentioned they visited the areas in Salem and Rochester, New Hampshire to go to two longtime managers who had been retiring, which they mentioned is a typical follow amongst executives.
Now the corporate is accusing the pair of getting visited at the very least 25 completely different Market Basket areas within the interval of Aug. 4-9, together with three shops in Lowell, one in Fitchburg and one in Nashua, N.H.
“Each Defendant, after entering a store, typically remained in it for approximately 10-20 minutes, and in some instances longer, walking through the store during its normal business hours, for the specific purpose of engaging on-the-job associates in conversations, and thereby disrupting store operations,” the submitting states. “Defendants wore suits and ties during their visits, as they would during store visits prior to their termination, to convey to associates that they were acting as executives of the Company, who would soon be reinstated. A photo from surveillance footage of Defendant Schmidt leaving the Somerville, Massachusetts, Market Basket store on August 7, 2025, waiving to the security camera, appears below.”
The hooked up picture within the submitting depicted a person who seems to be Schmidt, or to at the very least bear a resemblance to him, wanting and waving instantly at a safety digital camera subsequent to the shop’s entrance door. Additionally hooked up was a listing of every of the shops Schmidt and Gordon allegedly visited in current days in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.
Additionally hooked up had been safety photographs from Aug. 7, which the corporate claims to indicate Schmidt within the parking zone of the Tewksbury headquarters, close to the entrance door, after which him coming into the constructing’s loading bay. On this incident, the corporate alleges Schmidt parked his car in a extremely seen location, with photos of Arthur T. taped to the car home windows.
Whereas there, Market Basket alleges Schmidt spent six minutes inside the company workplaces in an space with out digital camera protection.
“Because there are no cameras in that area, it is unclear which private offices Defendant Schmidt may have accessed. Market Basket’s master key, which he has refused to return, would have allowed him to access any locked door on any Market Basket property, including any locked office in the corporate offices,” the submitting learn.
The corporate filed for one rely every of trespassing for Schmidt and Gordon. The primary requested reduction for the corporate consists of granting an injunction prohibiting the 2 from coming into Market Basket property and requiring Schmidt to return all grasp keys he nonetheless has entry to.
Justine Griffin, a spokesperson for Arthur T., referred to as the submitting “outrageous.”
“In a continuation of the board and Quinn Emmanuel’s scorched earth tactics, they sent this complaint to the media before Joe and Tom were even aware of it. This gameplaying needs to stop – they are messing with the lives of real people. And they are lying,” mentioned Griffin. “Once fired, they both decided to check in on their long-time colleagues, visiting stores and just trying to be a positive, reassuring figures in the turmoil. Last Thursday, Joe returned his company car to the office, as he was requested to do. While there, he went to visit briefly a couple of colleagues in the warehouse and office. They exchanged well wishes and he left without incident or doing anything inappropriate.”
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It is a growing story.
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