- Roughly 45,000 port workers from Maine to Texas are on strike for better pay and a ban on automation jobs
- The strike threatens to hurt one Lansing business that relies on imported products
- Video shows a business owner explaining his concern over the strike's impact on his store
Hemm Magar-Lungeli woke up at 3 a.m. Wednesday morning to drive to Chicago and pick up imported products that he usually gets from Detroit.
An order he placed fell through two weeks after he placed it, forcing him to drive an extra two hours to obtain the products his customers come to his store to buy.
Magar-Lungeli, co-owner of International Food Mart in Lansing, says it's one of the effects coming from a strike of thousands of port workers along the east and gulf coasts.
WATCH: DOCKWORKERS AT PORTS FROM MAINE TO TEXAS GO ON STRIKE, A STANDOFF RISKING NEW SHORTAGES
"Sometimes it's up and down," Magar-Lungeli said, describing business in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since 2020, Magar-Lungeli say the cost of items like chicken and fish haven't returned to pre-pandemic prices.
The strike would only amplify a situation that he says is getting tougher.
"If we don't have it we will not be able to make money and pay the bills," Magar-Lungeli said.
Magar-Lungeli says the business has been around since 2013 and relies on hope and his neighbors to keep it going through another rough patch.
"We are opening this businesss to help our communities in the local area. If we don't have that it's very bad for us," Magar-Lungeli said. "Please help us and we'll help you too."
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