With construction already hurting business, Saint-Henri shops dread long general strike

Business owners alonga stretch of Notre-Dame Street West in Montreal's Saint-Henri neighbourhood are worrieda prolonged general strike byconstruction workers could make an already bad situation worse.

Major construction projects across Quebec are now on hold indefinitely after unionsrepresenting 175,000 construction workers in Quebec launched a general unlimited strike Wednesday.

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That includes roadwork underway on Notre-Dame Street west of Atwater Avenue.

Shopkeepers along that stretch are already reeling as the construction goes into a second summer. They're now worried a general strike will prolong that miseryif not kill their businesses altogether.

"We're talking really about the systemic destruction of small businesses and those are people's dreams, those are people's livelihoods," said Abisara Machold, owner of the hair salon Inhairitance.

"I don't think it's profitable for Montreal nor for our street here that we all disappear."

'It creates insecurity'

While expressing solidarity with the striking construction workers, Machold said the city needs to communicate better with the struggling businesses, and help them out.

"When you see delays such as strikes [and] nobody really knows what's going on, it creates insecurity," she said.

"They don't really realize what this means for small business owners. [It's] slowed down traffic for restaurants, for cafes," she said.

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Across the street, Mehul Rex Patel, owner of the restaurant Raso, says the city needs to do more for local businesses as they contendwith roadwork.

"We pay tons of money in taxes and permits, and the list goes on," he said. "It's hard to make money owning a restaurant in Montreal in general, and then you have this."

Patel said the construction means few want to sit on the terrasse out front and he has to keep the windows closed due to the noise and dust.

It's also forced him to channel more funds into his marketing budget to keep customers coming.

"My daytime revenues have probably been cut in half. My marketing budget has doubled," he said.

"People just don't want to walk on Notre-Dame when there's all this stuff happening."

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