The Boston Globe - 13.09.2019

B8 Business The Boston Globe FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2019

John Ingalls has
seen business
grow each year at
Palmers Restau-
rant in Andover,
for the 31 years
he has owned it.
Every year — ex-
cept this one.
Ingalls just went through his
toughest August in two decades,
with revenue down 15 percent
from the same time last summer.
The reason? Ingalls chalks it up to
the gas fires and explosions that
rocked Andover, North Andover,
and Lawrence one year ago. Cus-
tomers went elsewhere during the
two months that Palmers was
closed, and he fears many never
returned.
Twelve months have passed
since an overpressurized gas line
on Columbia Gas’s system
wreaked havoc in the three Merri-
mack Valley communities, and the
local business community is still
putting the pieces back together.
More than 800 businesses were af-
fected. Many are back to normal,

finally. But Ingalls isn’t alone: A

survey two months ago by busi-

ness development nonprofit

EforAll showed as much as 30 per-

cent, or more than 200 business-

es, still have not fully recovered.

Recovery efforts continue, in

formal and less formal ways. The

official promotional efforts,

dubbed “Rock the Register,” are

funded by $10 million from Co-

lumbia Gas, a cash contribution

now in the hands of the Essex

County Community Foundation

and partly overseen by the Law-

rence Partnership. About $3 mil-

lion has been spent so far, on ef-

forts ranging from direct grants to

workshopstothemarketingcam-

paign.

Next up: A $240,000 effort

launching this week to get $30 gift

cards in the hands of the some

8,000 households that lost gas a

year ago. The credits will be good

at 140 or so businesses that were

disrupted by the explosions, a

number that could still grow. If it

works, more cards could go out, to

more homes in the area.

Other efforts are sprouting up.

Businesses in Lawrence are back-

ing a “Community Spirit” event at

Stadium Plaza on Saturday, for ex-

ample, and Ingalls just joined

with other restaurateurs to start

planning a local “restaurant week”

for February or March.

The explosions on Sept. 13,

2018, killed an 18-year-old, in-

jured more than two dozen other

people, and wrecked numerous

buildings. For businesses, the

damage was only just beginning.

As crews raced to repair and re-

place nearly 50 miles of gas lines,

many establishments waited two

to three months for gas to be re-

stored as the cold weather arrived.

Some were closed for a few days;

others for a few months. The ex-

plosions displaced thousands of

potential customers, and the en-

suing roadwork and other con-

struction created barricades as

merchants waited for folks to

come through their doors.

Columbia Gas has reimbursed

many businesses for lost time, and

to replace potentially compro-

mised cooking and heating equip-

ment. (Restaurants were particu-

larly hard hit.) The utility has re-

solved thousands of claims,

totaling more than $111 million,

but does not break out how many

were filed by businesses, as op-

posed to individuals.

Many small-business owners

still face shortfalls that are tough

to measure. Case in point: Sales

have slowed down at Moderno

Appliance & Furniture compared

to a year ago. The explosions hap-

pened at a tough time for co-own-

er Suzanne Carey-Fernandez; the

store was still trying to establish

itself in a new location, Stadium

Plaza in Lawrence, about a year

after moving in. Utility contrac-

tors set up shop in front of the

store for months, using the plaza

as a staging area. A few plaza busi-

nesses closed for good. So she got

the ball rolling for the Community

Spirit event on Saturday.

As the recovery continues,

these entrepreneurs see a silver

lining: a renewed sense of com-

munity. Rival banks joined togeth-

er to offer bridge loans, to help

keep businesses open until the

utility claims came through. The

Merrimack Valley Chamber of

Commerce is steering some events

to disrupted businesses. Business

owners got to know many of their

municipal officials for the first

time.

TheOak&IronBrewingCo.

needed gas to brew beer, but it

found a way to keep the suds flow-

ing once its inventory ran out.

Owner Jim Cass turned to the

Massachusetts Brewers Guild for

help; RiverWalk Brewing in New-

buryport pitched in by making

Oak & Iron’s two top selling beers

until service was restored at the

Andover brewery in late Novem-

ber.

Sometimes, disasters can bring

out the worst in people. More of-

ten, they bring out the best.

Jon Chesto can be reached at

[email protected]. Follow him

on Twitter @jonchesto.

Business recovery continues in Merrimack Valley

The Rock the

Register

campaign is

funded by $

million from

Columbia Gas.

JESSICA RINALDI/GLOBE STAFF/FILE

Jon Chesto

CHESTO MEANS BUSINESS

By Katie Johnston
GLOBE STAFF
Uber drivers in Massachusetts
and California have filed a new
round of class-action lawsuits
against Uber Technologies Inc.,
based on a federal appeals court
ruling Wednesday that may allow
Uber drivers not to be bound by
arbitration agreements and on
new California legislation that
creates a strict definition for clas-
sifying workers as employees.
The changes give Uber drivers
more leverage to challenge their
status as independent contrac-
tors.
In the appeals court case, a
unanimous three-judge panel in a
New Jersey case said that the Fed-
eral Arbitration Act — which ex-
empts interstate railroad workers
and seamen from arbitration
agreements — may also apply to
Uber drivers. That means Uber
drivers who signed arbitration
agreements that blocked them
from joining lawsuits can now sue
over minimum wages and over-
time pay.

The California legislation, ex-

pected to be signed by the gover-

nor, stating that workers whose

tasks are directed by the company

and who perform jobs that are

part of the company’s regular

course of business are considered

employees, not contractors.

Massachusetts has a similar

law.

Uber said that the California

law would not apply to it, as it has

said about the Massachusetts law,

because the company’s main busi-

ness is technology, not driving

passengers. The company did not

respond to a request for comment

about the lawsuits.

Earlier this year, Uber reached

a $20 million settlement with

drivers in Massachusetts and Cali-

fornia who had opted out of

Uber’s arbitration clause. The case

originally involved as many as

385,000 drivers but was reduced

to a class of about 13,600 after

Uber’s arbitration agreements

were ruled enforceable.

The drivers in the new cases,

filed Wednesday in US District

Court in San Francisco and Thurs-

day in Boston, are represented by

Shannon Liss-Riordan, the attor-

ney who filed the previous Uber

misclassification complaints.

Liss-Riordan has brought a

number of misclassification cases

against Lyft, Grubhub, DoorDash,

and other so-called gig economy

companies that have also been

bogged down by arbitration agree-

ments. But in suits involving Ama-

zon Flex drivers in Massachusetts

and in a national case filed in Se-

attle, the courts ruled that drivers

weren’t bound by the arbitration

agreement in their contract be-

cause, as in the Uber federal ap-

peals court ruling, they fall under

the transportation workers’ ex-

emption to the Federal Arbitra-

tion Act.

Liss-Riordan is also seeking an

injunction to order Uber to com-

ply with state laws.

“I’ve got clients who are sleep-

ing in their cars because they’re

driving 70, 80 hours a week and

they’re not making minimum

wage,” said Liss-Riordan, who is

challenging US Senator Ed Mar-

key in next year’s Democratic pri-

mary.

“I care about working people

being trampled on by large corpo-

rations who think they are above

the law. Corporations in America

today think that they can write all

the rules and ignore the working

people who make their business

possible.”

John Capriole, a Haverhill resi-

dent who is lead plaintiff in the

Massachusetts complaint, has to

cover his own expenses and is not

guaranteed minimum wage be-

cause he is not considered an

Uber employee, according to the

court filing. He has never been

paid overtime when he worked

more than 40 hours a week.

But Uber is clearly his employ-

er, the complaint states, because it

sets his rate of pay, controls the

riders he transports, and can ter-

minate him at any time. “Without

drivers to provide rides for Uber’s

customers, Uber would not exist,”

the suit says.

The new California measure

could be an “inflection point” in

the growing controversy over the

rights of gig-economy workers,

said David Weil, dean of the Heller

School for Social Policy and Man-

agement at Brandeis University

and former head of the Wage and

Hour Division at the US Depart-

ment of Labor under President

Obama. The federal appeals

court’s arbitration ruling could al-

so breathe new life into lawsuits

against these companies, he said.

The growing number of online

platforms in the business of deliv-

ering food and packages automat-

ically assume their workers are in-

dependent contractors, Weil said,

and this generally means lower

wages and fewer job protections.

“We’re unwinding the retail

sector with this model,” he said.

“That, to me, is unfortunately

doubling down on the erosion and

doubling down on some of the fac-

tors that are leading to greater

earnings inequality.”

Katie Johnston can be reached at

[email protected].

Mass.driversareagaintakingonUberoverworkstatus

Lawyer

Shannon Liss-

Riordan is

representing

Uber drivers in

Massachusetts;

she’s also a

candidate for

US Senate who

is challenging

incumbent

Senator Ed

Markey in next

year’s

Democratic

primary.

ket has always closed on Sundays
because of a promise they made
their mother to keep the day for
their home life.
But the shoppers were family,
too, and longtime customers
were not reassured to learn that
another market might be coming.
“This is a disaster,” lament-
ed Philip Kistler, who wore
a Fresh Pond Market baseball cap.
He has shopped here for 50 years,
he said, and frequents Fresh Pond
Market despite living in Belmont.
“I don’t care if I lived in Lexing-
ton, or Brookline, it doesn’t mat-
ter,” he said “It’s the best. Would
you rather mosey around Star?
Come on.”
“Star is a four-letter word,”
Marc joked about the far-bigger
grocery chain. (This was in jest:
Back in Armenia, Marc’s grandfa-
ther was the landlord to Sarkis
Mugar, Star Market’s founder.
When both started out in the gro-
cery business in the United States
they often bought at the same
wholesale markets, and Nish Se-
monian became close friends with
Sarkis’s son.)
He said he had mixed feelings
about closing the business. It has
been “100 percent consistent,” de-
spite changes in the industry. But
it was time.
Crosby concurred.
“Amazon doesn’t really affect
us. You’ve got one of the biggest
Star Market and Whole Foods
down the road, and Trader Joe’s
right there,” he said. “But they all
still like coming to Fresh Pond
Market. It must be my good looks,
huh?”
The brothers have worked in
tandem for six decades, often for
60 or 70 hours a week. Marc, the
general manager, handles the

uMARKET
Continued from Page B

front of the house, kibitzing with

customers and ordering the wine,

while Crosby works in the back,

butchering in his whites.

They’ve made some changes

over time: There are more pre-

pared foods. Cauliflower crackers

and gluten-free organic pasta are

stocked alongside the Ritz boxes

and jars of Ragu. They’ve upgrad-

ed the meat department with

more high-end cuts. They used to

sell fish only on Fridays, but now

daily fish sales are booming.

The pair said their parents and

grandparents instilled a commit-

ment to service in them that has

kept the business successful all

these years.

“My mother always said to

treat the customers like company

coming into your house,” Marc

said.

Nobody was ready to say good-

bye to the brothers Najarian;

many said they planned to come

in all week. But they probably

would have anyway.

“People come here for the food,

but this is the village general

store; it was the antidote to ‘Bowl-

ing Alone,’ ” said Paul Buttenwies-

er,alocalpsychiatrist,author,and

philanthropist. “We’re all in

mourning.”

The brothers said they didn’t

want to hand off the store to the

next generation, because they

wanted an easier life for their

kids.

Crosby’s son, Jonathan Najari-

an, an English professor at Boston

University (and an excellent meat

cutter, his dad said), came by the

store that afternoon to take in the

scene. He slid in behind the regis-

ter to check out customers with-

out thinking.

“It’s very strange,” he said. “I

told them a while ago, I said,

‘Before you guys do anything

come talk to me.’ But they didn’t

want me to.”

“I don’t want you working like

this,” Crosby said.

Some customers worried that

Formaggio’s higher-end fare

might push out everyday

items. But the brothers were opti-

mistic about the new ownership.

“It will be good for the neigh-

borhood,” Marc said. “We didn’t

want to put a CVS or a national

chain in here. We wanted to have

a local store.”

Neighbors are planning a party

for the owners this weekend. They

left a guest book for customers to

share their memories. By 3 p.m.

on Monday, more than 30 pages

had been filled with anecdotes:

tales of dragging groceries home

by sled during the Blizzard

of ’78, Leo’s generosity when pay-

checks were tight, Christmas din-

ners with Crosby’s tenderloins.

“FPM has anchored a commu-

nity for generations,” one patron

wrote.

“You and Crosby and the whole

FPM family and crew have been

excellent stewards of a way of life.

A better way whose spirit must be

preserved.”

But a child named Toby, using

wobbly penmanship and pink

highlighter, may have put it best:

“This place wuz good.”

Janelle Nanos can be reached

at [email protected].

Follow her on Twitter

@janellenanos.

Iconic Cambridge

market’s closing up

Customer Judy

Ellenzweig

waved as she

left Fresh Pond

Market on

Tuesday; inside

the store, a

wedding photo

of Peggy and

Leo Najarian

rested on the

butcher

counter. The

shop is now

run by their

children, Marc

and Crosby

Najarian, who

have decided to

close up this

weekend.

CRAIG F. WALKER/GLOBE STAFF