A bill eliminating collective bargaining for Utah’s public employees crossed its last legislative hurdle Thursday and now moves to Gov. Spencer Cox for his signature.
After about an hour of debate, state senators passed the bill on a 16-13 vote.
HB267 elicited thousands of emails, calls and texts to lawmakers over the past two weeks, while hundreds of teachers, firefighters and public transportation workers gathered at the Capitol to oppose it.
“Utah is less safe now,” Jack Tidrow, president of the Professional Firefighters of Utah, said after the bill’s passage.
Robert Carroll, a spokesperson for Cox, said the governor was following the debate on the bill “and will take a closer look at the legislation details now that the bill has passed.”
HB267 prohibits collective bargaining across all government organizations, including public schools, law enforcement and fire departments.
While it does not prevent public employees from joining or forming unions, it prohibits government employers from “recognizing a labor organization as a bargaining agent” and from “entering into collective bargaining contracts.”
Those opposed to the bill have argued that nullifying public sector employee unions’ collective bargaining rights would hurt workers and compromise essential public services.
The Utah Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, released a statement after the bill passed, saying it was “deeply disappointed” by the vote.
“Despite hearing from thousands of public-sector workers and supporters, the majority of Utah lawmakers refused to hear us,” the UEA said in its statement. “Instead, they chose to pass this highly unpopular and unnecessary legislation that undermines the rights of educators and other public employees across the state.”
The UEA, in its statement, urged Cox to “show up for teachers, listen to public employees and reject policies that weaken our ability to advocate for fair working conditions and quality public services.”
Utah House Democrats also called on Cox to veto the bill.
“We call on Governor Cox to listen to the overwhelming number of Utahns who oppose this bill and employ his veto power,” the House Democrats said in a statement Thursday. “This legislation revokes the right to collective bargaining from our Utah public employees. It takes away the ability of our education professionals, police officers, firefighters and other public employees to fight for better wages and safer working environments.”
Unions are ‘mobilizing’
Brad Asay, president of the American Federation of Teachers Utah, said Thursday public sector unions aren’t done fighting.
“This just makes us more determined to push back, fight back and defend workers' voices in the workplace,” Asay said.
Unions, he said, are already mobilizing and preparing to take whatever legal route is available and necessary.
The bill’s Senate co-sponsor, Sen. Kirk Cullimore, R-Cottonwood Heights, argued Thursday that any “blowback” is likely due to misinformation about what the bill actually does.
“One thing that could be better addressed in legislation in general is making sure that information gets out about what the bill actually does and does not do, because a lot of the messaging does not come from the legislature about what this bill does is off base and inaccurate,” Cullimore said.
Rep. Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan, HB267’s sponsor, released another measure Thursday that seeks to amend the Utah Constitution to enshrine Utah’s status as a right-to-work state — meaning employees can’t be hired or fired based on whether they are a union member — in that document, rather than just having it in statute.
Teuscher said in an interview that it would ensure unions can’t run a ballot initiative that would reverse that status, since the public can’t amend the Constitution without the Legislature putting an amendment on the ballot first.
‘No protection’
Lawmakers who support HB267 have consistently argued that the bill does not prevent unions from representing their members, but instead allows more voices to come to the table.
Asay disagreed. “There’s no employer out there in the public sector that’s going to bargain or have negotiations with individual employees,” Asay said when the bill was introduced. “It just doesn’t happen.”
While the bill keeps active collective bargaining contracts in place until they expire, Asay said he expects benefits and key protections for emergency responders, including firefighters, to disappear once that happens.
Protections, like protective clothing, equipment and health insurance, are all achieved through collective bargaining, he argued. Without such negotiations, he said, “there’s no protection.”
However, lawmakers in a media briefing following Senate floor time Thursday argued that protections exist outside of collective bargaining.
“Only one fire department and one police department [in Utah] have even used collective bargaining,” Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, said. “The safety standards are what they are today, just without the tool of collective bargaining.”
Lawmakers proposed a revision, but backtracked
Efforts to compromise were underway, but lawmakers abandoned them on Wednesday, saying they had failed to reach consensus on the “neutrality” of a revised bill draft with union representatives.
The earlier version of the proposed change would have allowed collected bargaining but required a routine recertification process. That draft was released last Friday, just an hour and a half before senators were set to discuss it. Ultimately, senators delayed action to allow union representatives more time to review the changes.
A third revision followed Sunday morning, making only minor technical adjustments, lawmakers said, with no significant departures from the Friday version.
After the Friday draft’s release, Jeff Worthington, president of the Utah AFL-CIO, said he met with unions over the weekend to gauge their reactions to the revision. Worthington said his organization represents 41 public and private sector unions across the state.
“The majority of them said that they were opposed,” Worthington said.
On Wednesday, lawmakers introduced a fourth draft that effectively reinstated the ban on collective bargaining rights for public employees. However, it was the original version of the bill that passed on Thursday.
“We feel betrayed by the legislative process,” Renée Pinkney, president of the Utah Education Association, said Thursday. “We were working so hard on getting some changes to the bill.”
After the third draft was released, the UEA changed its position from “opposed” to “watch.” Pinkney explained that the UEA does not take “neutral” positions. When they issue a “watch” status, it means they neither support nor oppose a bill.
“A few labor unions chose to oppose, and because of that opposition and the fact that there wasn’t 100% [neutrality], then the bill passed, ” Pinkney said. “That feels like retribution for all of us, and it’s just not fair.”
The bill protects taxpayers, lawmakers argue
During the hourlong debate, senators who spoke in support of the HB267 argued the measure was about protecting taxpayer dollars.
“[This bill] is designated to protect taxpayers, uphold the integrity of public funds and ensure that public employee practices are fair and transparent,” Cullimore said Thursday.
“There’s a proliferation of public employee unions that are negotiating against what could be seen as the taxpayer sometimes,” Cullimore continued.
Jerry Philpott, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 1004, said legislators are wrong when they portray the bill as pitting unions against taxpayers.
“First of all, we are taxpayers,” he said. “And with collective bargaining, it wasn’t forcing stuff on the taxpayers. All it was [doing was] giving a voice to the people who are on the job, doing the job every day. And it was forcing the city to actually listen to them.”
Philpott said the 1,100 AFSCME employees in Salt Lake City were able to create safety committees and raise concerns about working conditions without fear of retaliation, and were contacted almost weekly by employees in other cities worried about workplace safety but were afraid of retaliation if they spoke up.
Sen. Daniel Thatcher, R-West Valley City, argued Thursday that the bill may inadvertently cost taxpayers more money.
“We can say this saves taxpayer money, but the reality is... there are several processes that either the taxpayers will have to pick up or labor will have to do without,” Thatcher said. “And I don’t think that is safe. I think this will cost taxpayers money. This will make hiring more difficult than many of you are aware.”
Sen. Keven Stratton, R-Orem, said that public workers are “heroes” and the “heartbeat” of society, but unions in the public space present challenges.
“We are elected by the people to be the union and representatives of the people’s servants in the public sector,” Stratton said.
