This Incredible Story Explains Why Market Basket Employees Are So Obsessed With Their Old CEO

New England grocery chain Market Basket on Tuesday told employees who walked off the job in support of fired CEO Arthur T. Demoulas that they will be terminated if they do not return to work by Friday.

Many of Market Basket's 25,000 employees began holding protest rallies after the company's board of directors fired Arthur T. in favor of his cousin, Arthur S. Demoulas, who employees fear will cut the generous profit-sharing and bonuses they have enjoyed under Arthur T.

Read more: A Grocery Store Chain Fired A Popular CEO And Now Workers Are Making The Company Pay >>

But Arthur T.'s significance to the estimated 700 workers who stopped showing up after his removal goes beyond the $12 an hour starting salary he offered them.

Workers say Arthur T. made himself a member of their families, and a new video published by PBS gives a perfect example of the devotion that has convinced employees to risk their jobs to get him reinstated.

In it, Market Basket office manager Mary Jane Findeisen tells the emotional story of what happened when Arthur T. came to visit her dying husband in the hospital this past May:

Here's the full transcript:

"My husband ended up going in the hospital in May, and unfortunately stayed there until he passed away in September. Arthur came down to the Mass General ICU, and visited my husband and held his hands, and sat there and thanked him for all the years of service. He took me aside and spent like a half an hour, 45 minutes with me, holding my hand and crying with me, and thanking me for everything my family has done. It means the world to me, so this is why I'm here."