UAW strike impacting businesses close to home
“It makes you worried”
DELTA TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WILX) - Tony M’s Restaurant and Banquet Center is a staple in the Delta Township community.
The owner, Tamara Ferrell, and her husband have spent over a decade serving General Motors workers and the UAW strike could impact the flow of customers coming in and out of the restaurant.
Tony M’s is the perfect place for a quick drink, or a sit down dinner. Customers come for good service and the conversations. Over the years the restaurant has acquired a lot of regulars.
“It’s been a long time you meet a lot of people,” said Ferrell.
On Friday, Sept. 22, workers at the General Motors Lansing Distribution Center walked off the job.
“We’re out here for a cause because when we go up the community goes up,” said Joshua Webb, a General Motors worker.
There’s concern that a long strike between the UAW and the big three could affect her business and the customers who are fighting for better wages and benefits.
“When we go down you know the community really feels the effects of it,” said Webb.
Farrell has owned Tony M’s since 2010, she said the decisions that General Motors makes greatly affects her business.
“They affected us when they took the third shift away. I no longer could be open from seven in the morning till two in the morning. I didn’t have the business,” said Farrell.
Farrell said workers aren’t making what they usually do when they’re on strike and the first thing they cut back on is going out.
Farrell added, “When they’ve been on strike before they still tried to support us to a point, but you did notice the longer it went the less support.”
She’s just hoping business returns back to normal, both at the plant and behind the bar.
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