When Mike Summers became an Ironworker over 36 years ago, he was following in the100 year old proud tradition laid down by his father, uncles, and older brother.
Along with being an active member, Brother Summers served as Business Agent for Local 395 for over 13 years, and as the President of the Northwest Indiana Building Trades Council. And just three weeks ago he became the Business Manager for Iron workers Local 395.
Brother Summers is not only concerned with business, however. He is also very politically engaged and very focused on the elections this year, especially when it comes to the local scene here in Indiana. Brother Summers shares the many issues that he is focused on this election,
"We're really concerned with the misclassification of workers, and also the referendums on public schools attached to the tax cap bill. However, one of our gravest concerns is Right-to-Work legislation. The Iron workers here in Northwest Indiana, as well as across the state of Indiana, along with the rest of the building trades and the rest of the AFL-CIO- we're very concerned wtih Right-to-Work. We do feel that if we elect labor friendly candidates in Indianapolis that we can hold this off."
Noting that the laws would cripple unions, Brother Summers describes some of the indirect affects the dangerous legislation would have,
"The reason we need to is because the title is so misleading- it should be Right-to-Wreck. It removes the ability of people to pay taxes because it puts the middle class out of work. It removes the ability for the middle class to have insurance. Without having health and welfare, the insurance has to fall on someone and thats the state of Indiana."
Brother Summers is making sure that his members know the facts when it comes to statehouse candidates who will defend Indiana from Right-to-Work. And he believes that through member-to-member outreach, working families will make the biggest impact.
"We work with each other everyday. In a years time if I was still out there working, I would at least work with half of this local union, within two years time, everyone in that local union. So any time you go to the door and its a friendly face or a face you recognize as someone that belongs to your union, you're going to be more receptive to what their going to say. We do phone banks, we do mail outs, just about any way you can think of- e-mail- just about any way we can touch our members. We to make sure that our members know the true issues and how the candidates stand, and that will make the difference for Iron workers, and all working families in Indiana."
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