STRATFORD — The combination of a warm bathroom and a hot drink was a natural draw for members of Teamsters Local 1150 on a chilly February morning.

But, the Dunkin' Donuts in Oronoque Plaza aside, several business owners on Route 110 in Stratford and Shelton said the strike has already cut into their traffic.

Mike Tang, owner of O.P Nails on River Road in Shelton, said some of his regulars haven't been coming in.

"We have a lot of Sikorsky customers," Tang said, adding those workers usually came in after work. But Tang, who also reported a little trouble getting through the cars and pickets lining Route 110 next to the plant, said he hasn't yet had to tell any of his four workers to stay home. That, he added, is something he's trying to avoid.

Tang's neighbor and landlord, Bill Smelter, said a long strike could hurt his business, Morgan Carpet & Floors Inc., because a lot of his customers are Sikorsky employees. If some of those workers are on strike, they probably won't want to spend money on nonessentials.

Quotable
"We have a lot of Sikorsky customers"
—Mike Tang, owner of
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O.P Nails
But so far, the only problem for Smelter has been strikers' cars in his parking lot at lunchtime, overflow from the restaurant next door to his small plaza.

Stratford resident Susan Turturino didn't let the strike interfere with plans to bring sons Zachary, 7, and Anthony, 4, to All About Ceramics in Oronoque Plaza. Turturino has lived through strikes, because her husband, an AT&T employee, is in a union.

The boys noticed the strikers, she said, and, once she explained what they were doing, "They understood a little bit." But when she told them Daddy was in a union, too, she had to reassure them he wasn't on strike.

Dawn Brezina of Trumbull, owner of All About Ceramics, said she decided not to go out to lunch Wednesday, because she didn't want to deal with the traffic tie-ups.

"It is causing congestion in our parking lot," she added. In addition to strikers and regular customers, the Stratford police set up a command center on one side of the lot, which sits high above Route 110 and offers a good view of the action.

"A lot less. Unbelievably less," said Judy Psaltis, owner of Main Street Deli in Oronoque Plaza, when asked about her business.

Most of her customers come from the Sikorsky plant and, she said, the employees who aren't on strike don't leave until it's time to go home, because of the picket lines.

But Monday, she's still going ahead with her plan to open three hours earlier — at 7 a.m. She made that decision before the strike.

Psaltis is one of several business owners in the plaza with a sign in the window, signaling support of the union.

But, according to one union member, her show of support came two days after they asked her to put a sign in place.

Milford resident Thomas Murphy II said he called an acquaintance who owns one local company after seeing one of his truck drivers give the strikers a thumbs down.

"We buy stuff, too," Murphy said and, after the strike is over, union members will be taking care of the local vendors who supported them.

But, Psaltis said, she supports the union and its members. And Murphy did acknowledge she is caught in a "Catch-22," because union workers aren't her only Sikorsky customers.

Across the plaza, at Stella's Family Restaurant and Catering, Michael Savoie not only won't cross the picket line to deliver food to the plant, on Monday he brought free pizzas to pickets and is offering strikers 10 percent discounts and a free soda.

"We understand and we support them," Savoie said during a brief break from getting catering orders together.

"They are our lunch business," he said of Sikorsky's thousands of Stratford employees.

But the catering business is helping to make up some of the losses. And, down the road, "They'll be back. For now, it's about the workers."

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