{"id":2602,"date":"2014-03-28T14:27:45","date_gmt":"2014-03-28T18:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=2602"},"modified":"2014-03-28T15:49:00","modified_gmt":"2014-03-28T19:49:00","slug":"duchy-flip-flops-on-labor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=2602","title":{"rendered":"Duchy Flip Flops on Labor"},"content":{"rendered":"

BethesdaNow’s Aaron Kraut wrote a fascinating story<\/a> about Duchy Trachtenberg’s kickoff event.<\/p>\n

Duchy apologized<\/a> for her previously poor relations with labor<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cGuess what guys, your employees deserve competitive pay and benefits for the excellent job that they do each and every day,\u201d Trachtenberg said in a message addressed at the police, firefighter and county employee union representatives in the audience. \u201cI pledged my support for this and I sincerely regret the breakdown of our working relationship a few years back. It should never have happened, given my union roots, and I really feel badly that it did.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nothing like receiving an apology four years later when someone wants your support because they’re running again. Apparently, Duchy not only wants mend fences but also to be the tribune for labor on the Council<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cThat should have never happened and it didn\u2019t happen when I was on the Council,\u201d Trachtenberg said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be the first thing that I do and it\u2019s the right thing to do because effects bargaining, binding arbitration and adequate pay and workers\u2019 benefits are all essential workers\u2019 rights.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Two years ago, County residents voted by 58% to uphold the County Council’s decision on effects bargaining. Labor has many good arguments to make centered around pay and benefits but reviving this one is just tactically misguided. Fighting over the police chief’s control over the police places the unions on much weaker grounds than in almost any other debate.<\/p>\n

Duchy is also trying to perform Ten Mile Creek jujitsu–claiming credit for having laid the groundwork to protect the area while simultaneously attacking her opponent for efforts to protect it:<\/p>\n

Trachtenberg mentioned Berliner only once, and not by name, while discussing her environmental protection credentials. She recently got support from a group of developers<\/a> unhappy with Berliner\u2019s support of a move to limit development near Ten Mile Creek in Clarksburg.<\/p>\n

Trachtenberg claimed she had plenty of support among environmental activists, and said a water quality work group she started with former Councilmember Mike Knapp laid the groundwork for the Ten Mile Creek debate today.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And Duchy is very effective:<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite being accused of being bossy, and that happens often, or that I\u2019m too quick to cut to the chase, I do get things done,\u201d Trachtenberg said. \u201cI\u2019m very effective and I know I am. I\u2019m not bragging. I know it.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don’t know many effective people who feel it necessary to go around and pronounce themselves effective quite so emphatically. They just get things done.<\/p>\n

I guess her arguments were effective in at least one sense. I plan to vote to reelect Roger Berliner.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BethesdaNow’s Aaron Kraut wrote a fascinating story about Duchy Trachtenberg’s kickoff event. Duchy apologized for her previously poor relations with labor: \u201cGuess what guys, your employees deserve competitive pay and benefits for the excellent job that they do each and every day,\u201d Trachtenberg said in a message addressed at the police, firefighter and county employee … Continue reading Duchy Flip Flops on Labor<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,63],"tags":[670,1458,669,1470],"class_list":["post-2602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-duchy-trachtenberg","category-montgomery-county","tag-aaron-kraut","tag-duchy-trachtenberg","tag-flip-flop","tag-unions"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4mKJE-FY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2602"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2605,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2602\/revisions\/2605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}