Hammer comes down didn't hit the nail on the head

Foster's Daily Democrat’s use of “Hammer comes down” in a Friday story about Market Basket CEOs laying off part timers troubled me the first time I laid eyes on it.

What exactly does it mean when the “hammer comes down?”

There is much confusion over the saying’s meaning as evidenced by a myriad of explanations at a website (http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=807023) that focuses on such phrases, what they mean and how they originated.

On a separate website exploring such phraseology one person had this explanation.

“What it means "when the hammer came down" is that you will reap what you sow. For instance if everybody is screwing around at work and the boss comes in and catches you, "the hammer will come down.”

It was actually this type of feared interpretation that caused me to recoil when I first saw the headline on Friday.

Here were these brave part timers risking their jobs and careers (for a job at Market Basket is a career, at least it was) on the basis of a principle. The principle may not be just that they are loyal to Artie T., who we all know by now is  Arthur T. Demoulas, the good cousin in a family feud over the direction of the once-successful 71-store chain.

It may also be that they are paid well – including bonuses and profit sharing – and they fear that that ample pay structure will be deconstructed if Arthur S. Demoulas, the bad cousin, gets his meathooks more into the business end, which had formerly been Artie T.’s purview.

If Market Basket workers were unionized we wouldn’t be writing this column right now. Corporations can’t arbitrarily reduce worker pay and benefits unless they can show the corporation is in dire financial straits. Obviously, that isn’t (or at least wasn’t) the case with Market Basket, which has made many members of a rather large Greek family from Lowell, Mass., millionaires.

As we approach Labor Day, it will be interesting to see how this corporate morality play in which the forces of unbridled greed and defiant workers clash as viciously as the cousins who represent them comes to an end.

Many interpreters of the “hammer comes down” meaning said the phrase has to do with the forces of power coming down hard on those they rule for not following orders.

I guess that would also be us, the customers, who have stayed away since the walkout at Market Basket’s headquarters and customer boycott began more than three weeks ago.

Corporate execs may have delivered a painful message on Friday when they forced the layoffs of part timers, but here’s a message back at them. The more than 95 percent of customers who have boycotted your store since this all began are not going to trickle in even if you’re selling milk for a buck a gallon.

Gee, I guess we’re putting the hammer down on them, huh?

It actually feels pretty good.