Renée Pinkney, a Park City social studies teacher who serves as the president of the Utah Education Association, speaks about changes to HB267 at the Utah Capitol Building on Friday, Jan. 31, 2025. (Kyle Dunphey/Utah News Dispatch)
One of the most controversial and debated bills this legislative session got a facelift Friday morning, softening some of the opposition from the state’s unionized public employees.
Sponsored by Rep. Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan, HB267 would have prohibited collective bargaining for unions in the public sector, which represent teachers, firefighters, police officers and municipal workers.
But on Friday morning, a new version of the bill was unveiled that does away with the ban on collective bargaining — the process where a school district, city, county or other entity with public employees meets with a union to negotiate a contract for those employees.
Instead, the bill now requires public unions to conduct a recertification election every five years.
As long as a majority of the employees in an organization votes for a union to represent them, the union can engage public employers in collective bargaining. If the union doesn’t get a majority vote, “the class remains unrepresented,” according to the bill.
“While we are still reviewing the details, one thing is already clear. The pressure worked. Lawmakers heard us. They heard you. And while this fight is not over, it’s a testament to what’s possible when public workers stand in solidarity,” said Renée Pinkney, a Park City social studies teacher who serves as the president of the Utah Education Association, which represents more than 18,000 teachers in the state.
The compromise was revealed even as hundreds of union members, including those from the private sector, descended on the Capitol to protest the bill they accused of union busting.
For the last two weeks the Utah Education Association, together with other labor groups and public employees, protested Teuscher’s “anti-union” bill, drumming up opposition against what emerged as one of the most debated laws this legislative session, and in sessions past.
Teuscher said the bill was an attempt to give teachers and other public sector employees who aren’t part of a union a greater voice.
Sometimes a union doesn’t represent a majority of the employees in an organization, yet it negotiates for terms on behalf of everyone. His bill, he explained, would have allowed for individuals to negotiate for their own employment terms.
That explanation didn’t pass muster for many of the state’s public employees, who worried the elimination of collective bargaining would take away a union’s power. Without it, governments, school districts and other public entities that previously negotiated with unions wouldn’t feel compelled to listen to their concerns — and if they won’t listen to a union, they definitely wouldn’t listen to a single employee, labor groups argued.
The public opposition swayed many lawmakers, too. In the House, 18 Republicans joined 14 Democrats to vote “no.” It narrowly passed a Senate committee, too, with the tie-breaking vote cast after a promise from Teuscher that he would work to find a compromise.
The bill passed the Senate after an 18-10 vote on Thursday, with the sponsor in the Senate, Majority Leader Kirk Cullimore, R-Sandy, telling his more skeptical colleagues that by Friday, a new version would be released.
Senate rules require bills to be voted on twice before they pass, and when HB267 came up for a second vote Friday, Cullimore circled it, meaning lawmakers hit the pause button. It will likely receive a final vote next week.
As Senate proceedings started on Friday, a crowd of about 300 people gathered outside of the chamber, forming a sea of union sweatshirts and hats, mixed in with teachers wearing “red for ed” alongside uniformed police officers and firefighters.
Steel workers, miners, plumbers, electricians, flight attendants and other unionized workers joined in as the crowd chanted “solidarity forever, the union makes us strong!” echoing through the Capitol and audible on the Senate floor. As Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, gave his opening remarks Friday, someone pounded on the gallery doors, interrupting proceedings and prompting a stern response from Utah Highway Patrol troopers.
The demonstration Friday was a continuation of nearly two weeks of protest. More than 13,000 people have signed onto a Utah Education Association petition against the bill, while several lawmakers say they’ve never seen this much public opposition to a piece of legislation before. When the bill went before both House and Senate committees, scores of people showed up to speak against it, spilling into multiple overflow rooms.
“When we raise our voices, we can make a difference. Over the last several days, Utah public educators and our labor partners across the state have been clear. We will not sit silently while these decisions are made that impact students, our schools and our profession. That collective effort, the emails, the phone calls, the public engagement, has moved the needle,” said Pinkney, standing on the steps outside the Capitol building Friday.
The bill would have directly impacted Salt Lake City’s fire and police departments, and a number of school districts around the state, which Teuscher said are the only entities that collectively bargain.
But advocates say it would have had a chilling effect on all of the state’s public employees. By eliminating collective bargaining as an option for all public unions, even the unions that don’t collectively bargain would be at a disadvantage, they said, as the entity that employs them — whether it’s a school district, city, county, or department — could feel empowered to cut wages or benefits, and face no repercussion from the union.
But now with the changes released Friday, it’s likely many of the groups opposed to the bill will take a more neutral stance. Cullimore said he’s spoken with a number of labor groups that say they are no longer opposed to the bill (although they aren’t supporting it, either).
“It’s more reflective of that body,” Sen. Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork, said of the changes. “If you’re going to have collective bargaining, or have an ability to bargain on behalf of a group, you need to represent half of that group.”
The bill would still have an outsized impact on public school employees. It would offer professional liability insurance for teachers, which in most cases is only currently offered through a union. Teuscher said that would cost each teacher between $110 to $150 annually.
The bill would also restrict certain government resources from going toward union activity. That includes ensuring taxpayer funds won’t pay a public employee for the work they do for a union.
And unions wouldn’t get special exemptions for using public resources, like property — for instance, if other groups or people have to pay to use a public room or space, so does the union.
People who are employed by a union, but aren’t actually employed by the entity the union represents (for example, someone who works in an administrative position for a teachers union full time, but isn’t actually employed by a school district) would no longer have access to the Utah Retirement System.
It’s likely Democrats will still oppose the bill, according to Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla.
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