Dave Austin has joined the staff of the Michigan Building and Construction Trades Council’s Detroit office, serving as business representative.

The president and business development coordinator of Detroit’s IBEW Local 58 since 2007, Austin took the building trades council position in January after it was offered by MBCTC Secretary-Treasurer Patrick Devlin. He has been a Local 58 member since 1987.

“The building trades council is an umbrella organization for all the trades, and I would like to continue to see us as a unifying organization,” Austin said. “We’re in tough times, and some say our better, stronger days are behind us. Maybe we just need to do a different kind of fighting to bring us back. Maybe we just have to find the right way to fight.”

Austin, 49, is a resident of Eastpointe. He served on that city’s council from 2000 to 2003, and then as mayor from 2004 to 2007.  “I have strong political ties in Macomb County, some in Wayne County that I bring to the table, and maybe those will be helpful,” he said. “I look at unions and politics as ways to try to provide some sort of better middle class standard of living for people.”

Devlin said “Dave Austin’s reputation precedes him with the good work he did at Local 58. I know he was highly regarded there and he had a good relationship with the other trades. Dave brings strong communication skills to this position, and I know he will do an excellent job representing the building trades men and women in Detroit and throughout the state.”