Utah Labor Coalition Puts Bargaining Ban on Hold with Historic Referendum

If the bill is allowed to take effect, Utah will join the Carolinas as one of the three most restrictive states for public sector unions, said labor expert John Logan in a recent interview with the Associated Press. The bill’s sponsors, Rep. Jordan Teuscher and Sen. Kirk Cullimore, are members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), whose right-wing labor policy handbook has served as a model for anti-union bills from Florida to Hawai‘i. ALEC even named Teuscher and Cullimore ​“Policy Champions” for their work.

A similar crackdown is happening at the national level, as President Donald Trump has issued an executive order to strip federal workers of union rights. But the resistance to union-busting is alive and well in Utah, where HB 267 has galvanized support for organized labor in a very red state with one of the lowest union densities in the nation.

After HB 267 was signed, labor leaders looked to stop the ban by putting a referendum on the November 2026 ballot. But the road to get there hasn’t been easy.

Utah has one of the most challenging referendum processes in the nation: Organizers were tasked with collecting signatures from 8% of Utah’s voting population — 140,748 voters — in a month. That translates to more than 4,600 signatures per day. And they had to meet that 8% threshold in at least 15 of 29 state senate districts, meaning they couldn’t just concentrate on liberal enclaves like Salt Lake City.

“Overwhelmingly, the state of Utah was against it,” says Haley Kelley, a social studies teacher and member of the Granite Education Association. ​“We went to the Capitol. We emailed and called the governor and the legislators. … Thousands of people did this, and they still didn’t listen. And so, we’ve got to get this on the ballot.”

For the past two years, Teuscher tried and failed to pass similar restrictions. But after negotiations between unions and lawmakers broke down in February, this year’s ban squeaked through by a three-vote margin.

In response, on February 7, more than a thousand workers packed the Capitol rotunda, chanting ​“Veto!”

But on February 14, Gov. Spencer Cox signed the bill, which would stop public employers from establishing contracts with unions, prohibit certain union activities on public property and prevent public employees who join unions from getting pensions.

In Teuscher’s Wall Street Journal opinion piece published later that month, he argued the ban would protect taxpayers from untrustworthy union leaders who ​“pursue their own agendas over individual workers’ interests.” He did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Labor leaders contend that collective bargaining benefits all workers, and the ban will have dire implications for Utahns’ well-being.

According to Jack Tidrow — the 14-year president of the Professional Firefighters of Utah and a 31-year active firefighter — current safety standards for first responders are the result of years of collective bargaining. In the current contract, for example, four firefighters are dispatched with each engine, up from three, which protects workers and makes disaster responses more efficient. Safe staffing levels don’t happen without strong unions, says Tidrow. ​“You’re not just given those things,” he explains. ​“We had to work hard to get it.”

To get this referendum, around 5,000 volunteers knocked on doors, stood on street corners, staked out popular coffee shops, visited retirement homes and organized drive-thru signing stations. One woman even threw a signing party in the same master-planned neighborhood where Teuscher lives.

Teacher and volunteer Jennifer Williams even managed to convince her husband to register to vote for the first time in decades, just to sign the referendum petition. ​“He may choose not to vote,” she says. ​“But he signed the referendum because he knows how much we need this support.”

Caren Burns, a fifth-grade teacher, spent her spring break collecting signatures in deep-red, rural districts. The experience, she says, was ​“eye-opening.” When she asked Utahns to show their support for teachers, some revved their trucks and gave the one-finger salute while driving away.

But many others were receptive to her message. ​“I saw people show up in droves,” she says. ​“It was crazy to go to a park and have people driving 20 minutes to come put their signature on your packet.”

In St. George, a city on Utah’s southwestern edge, she gathered 756 signatures in a single day during a ​“Hands Off” protest.

Between March 15 and April 15, the coalition gathered more than double the number of required signatures; of those, the lieutenant governor’s office deemed 251,590 valid. The referendum petition also met its requirements in eight more districts than necessary.

According to the Utah Education Association, it’s the most successful citizen-driven ballot measure in state history.

Both the union coalition and opposition groups, like Utahns for Worker Freedom and the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity, now have their sights set on November 2026.

For Baskett, the referendum sends a ​“very clear message” from the people: ​“If you try to interfere with their public workers and fix something that isn’t broken,” he says, ​“they’re going to come out and do what was considered impossible.”