Senate committee delays ICE director vote following union opposition

Senate committee delays ICE director vote following union opposition

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee today postponed a vote on the nomination of Ronald Vitiello to become director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said “there are some issues” that continue to delay the vote when announcing the decision during a committee meeting.

A union that represents more than 7,000 ICE agents urged the committee this week to reject Vitiello’s nomination.

The National ICE Council, which endorsed President Donald Trump’s campaign in 2016, cited controversial comments Vitiello posted to Twitter. Union president Chris Crane said in a letter to lawmakers that Vitiello “lacks the judgment and professionalism to effectively lead a federal agency.”

In one 2015 tweet, Vitiello, a long-time Border Patrol official, suggested the Democratic Party should be renamed the “the liberalcratic party or the NeoKlanist Party.”

Vitiello called the tweet a “mistake” and a “joke” during a confirmation hearing before the committee in November.

Join CUE – a community for positive employee relations

CUE offers unparalleled networking and educational opportunities  

If you seek to build and maintain a vibrant corporate culture CUE membership can help. CUE members find the resources and tools they need to support positive employee relations programs within the CUE community.

CUE membership offers a variety of resources ranging from a regular schedule of timely labor relations updates to the incredible networking and educational opportunities available through our CUE Conferences, regional roundtable meetings, webinars, our lawyer and consultant advisory committees and member-to-member networking within the CUE community throughout the year.

Employee engagement is an ongoing effort, and CUE can help your company with this. One way in which we can do that is through providing exceptional learning opportunities at our conferences where top experts present the latest ideas on leadership and engagement.  We’ll help you find answers to questions that matter to your bottom line, but we offer much more.

Over the past year, the CUE Board of Directors has been working hard to build additional value into your CUE membership. One of the first changes was a new look for our website that makes it look cleaner and easy to use. In the last quarter of the year, we’ve offered two webinars and a regional meeting in Boston.

In January, we will post a number of events for 2019, including the first confirmed webinar of the year which will be an update on labor developments in Canada on January 23rd at 3 PM featuring Mike Sherrard of Sherrard Kuzz, John Mortimer from Labourwatch, and John Moulding from Honda. By the end of the first quarter, we hope to have a full year of events scheduled for 2019 and have them posted on the events calendar to help you easily track and take advantage of these member events. 

Early bird tickets for the Spring 2019 CUE Conference in Atlanta will open on December 17th.

As you consider renewal, here’s a brief list f you’re still deciding whether or not to renew, or just haven’t gotten around to it yet, please let us remind you of what you will be missing if you do not renew:

·  Substantial discounts to two annual conferences

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·  Networking with our members as well as our LLAC (labor attorneys) and CCAC (consultants)

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·  The CUE daily and weekly newsletters

·  webinars, videos, and legal alerts, as well as other publications

If you would like to receive information about joining the CUE community for positive employee relations, it couldn’t be easier — just call 1-210-545-3499 and dial x2 for Michael or email us at director@cueinc.com.

Also, we have a new mailing address for the CUE office:   CUE, Inc.  3264 Medlock Bridge Road, Suite C Norcross GA 30092. 

PIng Pong Politics:House Education and the Workforce subcommittee to hold minimum wage hearing

It feels like this story is a perfect example of what the next two years in Washington D.C. will be like.  Think ping pong in the film Forest Gump. 

A House Education and the Workforce subcommittee will hold a hearing next week on raising the minimum wage to $15.

Republicans, in their last hearing in the majority, will use the hearing to make the case that a $15 minimum will hurt businesses. Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), who’s expected to take over as chairman, said last month that the committee will take up $15 minimum wage legislation next year.

“The minimum wage bill will be one of the first we consider,” Scott said. “My expectation is we’d introduce something not identical to the Raise the Wage Act, which is $15 by 2024, but something very similar.”

The hearing is set for Nov. 12 at 10 a.m. in room 2175 of the Rayburn House office Building.