Customers fund newspaper ads championing cause of ‘Artie T.’

Aug. 01--FARMINGTON -- A local woman, who says she owes her life and her two children's lives to ousted Market Basket CEO Artie T. Demoulas, is spearheading a campaign in local newspapers to get him reinstated.

Jennifer Soucy Bukowski, who joined Market Basket when she was just a teenager, has made it possible for customers to join the fight by funding newspaper advertisements that chide the current Market Basket board of directors and champion the cause of "Artie T."

The newspaper ads will be running this weekend after an ultimatum by the Market Basket board that all employees must return to work Monday or face dismissal.

Market Basket customers in Massachusetts and New Hampshire are buying full-page ads in newspapers that speak directly to the company's board of directors about the 14-day-old boycott of the grocery chain.

In New Hampshire, the advertisements are slated to run in Foster's Daily Democrat and the Portsmouth Herald on Saturday and Sunday. Bukowski got the advertising campaign rolling here, but the idea did not originate with her. It started with customers who wanted to place ads of support in the Lowell Sun in Lowell, Mass. Bukowksi said the Sun gave the customer support group in Lowell a sizable discount on the ads and the group created a GoFundMe page to pay for them. Any excess money from that fundraiser will be used to pay drivers and warehouse workers who have not been getting a pay check during the Market Basket boycott.

The GoFundMe page set up to pay for the Lowell Sun ads had only been up for five hours on Thursday and already had $10,000, Bukowski said.

Since the GoFundMe account in Massachusetts was already committed to pay for advertisements there and to help unpaid workers affected by the boycott, Bukowski decided to create a similar fund here. On Thursday, she placed the advertising orders with local newspapers and said the ads will be funded entirely by customers through a GoFundMe account she created for New Hampshire and Maine people who want to contribute.

Bukowski, who has worked for the company for nine years, said she was "a little nervous" about being on the hook to pay for the advertisements, but hopes customers come through. She wants the public to know that the GoFundMe account is completely legitimate.

"I'm trying to get the word out," she said.

To access it, go to GoFundMe.com/ce6suk and search for NH/MEmbcustomerad.

The ads claim broad customer support for employees involved in the dispute over the firing of Artie T. Demoulas, who is beloved among workers in the 71-store company that was founded in Lowell, Mass. Employees say "Artie T." is responsible for running a company that feels like family. Employees attest they have received good pay and benefits and fear that will all evaporate under new leadership at the company from Artie T.'s cousin and rival Arthur S. Demoulas.

The text of the red, white and blue newspaper advertisement reads as follows: "To the current CEOs of Demoulas Market Basket, Board of Directors, and Shareholders: A full boycott does not depend on Associates; it depends on CUSTOMERS. It is YOUR CUSTOMERS who are boycotting your stores. It is YOUR CUSTOMERS who bring in the money. It is YOUR CUSTOMERS who are your bottom line. It is YOUR CUSTOMERS who will not shop at Market Basket until Artie T. is back as CEO. It is YOUR CUSTOMERS who paid for this ad. #YouCantFireCustomersWeQuit".

Bukowski said she and her husband have both worked at Market Basket for years and have a personal stake in pushing for the reinstatement of Artie T.

"I owe my life to him and the lives of my two children," Bukowski said.

She started working there when she was just 17. While she was a young employee, she became very ill with irreversible liver disease. She was placed on a transplant list, but had a long wait ahead of her. She worked full-time for Market Basket and got health insurance benefits through the company's carrier, Blue Cross.

Her health took a turn for the worse in 2003 when she contracted a blood infection. She was so ill, she could no longer work full time and feared losing her insurance. She penned a letter directly to Arthur T. Demoulas to explain her plight.

"You're my last chance," she wrote in the letter.

After receiving the letter, Demoulas decided to continue her insurance coverage. "If I could only work 10 hours that week, the company would take a portion of it to pay for my insurance," Bukowski said.

It was a lifeline she'll never forget. Eventually she received a liver transplant at the Mayo Clinic in Florida. "They never would have taken me as a patient if I didn't have insurance," she said.

She had more medical troubles when her two sons were born: her first-born was 10 weeks premature; the younger boy was 15 weeks premature. Her babies needed to be in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. While she was there, she saw a plaque on the wall. The entire floor of the NICU there had been donated by the Demoulas family.

"They don't talk about it a lot. People don't know about the Demoulas family's generosity," she said.

Bukowski said she doesn't know how it will turn out, but believes customers are the key to resolving the boycott. "The customers are really leading," she said.

Bukowski's husband, who has worked for Market Basket for 26 years, worked 41 hours last week at the Rochester store, she said. Her husband is in charge of the wine department and has still been placing orders.

"There's a lot of cleaning going on, too," Bukowski said. Workers are cleaning out the empty cases, spit shining everything and even painting.

And there are still some shoppers. "Not a lot, but some," Bukowski said. Most of them are elderly folks who rely on lower Market Basket food prices to get by, Bukowski said.

That, she said, she understands.

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(c)2014 the Foster's Daily Democrat (Dover, N.H.)

Visit the Foster's Daily Democrat (Dover, N.H.) at www.fosters.com

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