Lawmakers introduce changes to public labor union bill as hundreds gather in opposition

Chelsie Acosta, Salt Lake Education Association vice president, cheers with other educators and union members in opposition to HB267, Public Sector Labor Union Amendments, at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Friday.

Chelsie Acosta, Salt Lake Education Association vice president, cheers with other educators and union members in opposition to HB267, Public Sector Labor Union Amendments, at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Friday. (Laura Seitz, Deseret News)


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KEY TAKEAWAYS
  • Lawmakers revised HB267, removing a proposed ban on public sector collective bargaining.
  • The bill now would require unions to secure majority employee support for bargaining rights.
  • Despite changes, opposition remains, with a Senate vote postponed for further review.

SALT LAKE CITY — In anticipation of a vote on what has turned out to be one of the most controversial bills of the 2025 legislative session, hundreds of people filled the halls of the Capitol on Friday.

"Solidarity forever, solidarity forever, solidarity forever, the union makes us strong," sang a crowd of union members and public workers gathered outside the Senate gallery, as they voiced their opposition to a bill on public labor unions.

Lawmakers introduced changes to HB267, Public Sector Labor Union Amendments, on Friday, removing the prohibition on public sector collective bargaining and instead requiring unions to receive a majority of employee support to participate in collective bargaining. The substitute version of the bill was released just before Senate floor time on Friday.

Shannon Herbert, Clayton Middle School language arts and history teacher, looks up at her sign as other educators and union members gather in opposition to HB267, Public Sector Labor Union Amendments, at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Friday.
Shannon Herbert, Clayton Middle School language arts and history teacher, looks up at her sign as other educators and union members gather in opposition to HB267, Public Sector Labor Union Amendments, at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Friday. (Photo: Laura Seitz, Deseret News)

It was expected that the bill would be voted on in the Senate shortly after the changes were released, but the bill's floor sponsor Kirk Cullimore, R-Draper, paused the vote on the bill until next week, giving lawmakers and stakeholders more time to read through and understand the changes.

Cullimore worked with the bill's sponsor, Rep. Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan, to make changes to the bill.

Because of the changes, if the bill passes through the Senate, it will have to return to the House for a final vote.

These changes came after feedback from many public union members who gathered to speak out against the bill during both Senate and House committee meetings.

UEA President Renée Pinkney speaks as educators and union members gather in opposition to HB267, Public Sector Labor Union Amendments, at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Friday.
UEA President Renée Pinkney speaks as educators and union members gather in opposition to HB267, Public Sector Labor Union Amendments, at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Friday. (Photo: Laura Seitz, Deseret News)

Even though changes have been made, some people remain in opposition to the bill.

"Any version of House Bill 267 is just unfortunate," said Kelly Yeates, a high school teacher in Park City and a member of the Utah Education Association.

What changes were made to HB267?

The original text of HB267 prohibited public sector collective bargaining completely. Teuscher explained that collective bargaining is when an employer and a union come together to negotiate a contract for employees.

"In most of those collective bargaining agreements, it spells out specifically that the union representation is the sole collective bargaining agent, meaning that the public employer is not able to negotiate with anyone else, other than union representatives," said Teuscher.

Under this new substitute, if a labor organization has a majority of employees vote for them, then they can engage in collective bargaining.

Educators and union members gather in opposition to HB267, Public Sector Labor Union Amendments, at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Friday.
Educators and union members gather in opposition to HB267, Public Sector Labor Union Amendments, at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Friday. (Photo: Laura Seitz, Deseret News)

If the bill is passed, starting in 2026, a group of employees who want to engage in collective bargaining can hold a secret ballot election to contract with a collective bargaining representative. The election has to be done through a third party.

An organization needs a majority of all employees, not just union members, to vote in favor of them in order to engage in collective bargaining. In order for the organization to continue collective bargaining, an election needs to be held every five years.

"One of the reasons why I've been supportive, it's more reflective of that body," said Sen. Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork. "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. So to me, it's better process."

A collective bargaining representative who does not receive a majority vote would have to wait 12 months before holding another election through a third party.

Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, said that even with the changes, her caucus is still opposed to the bill.

Cullimore proposed holding off on a final vote until stakeholders had a chance to review the changes.

The senator said he has already heard from a few unions, and they are all neutral on the changes, including the Fraternal Order of Police, Utah Public Employees Association and six local education unions.

Public employees and unions members had spoken against bill

Before the changes to the bill were released, it was expected that the Senate would vote on the bill Friday morning. In anticipation of that vote, many public workers and union members gathered in the Capitol to express their opposition to HB267.

As the crowd was gathering, multiple union members said they had not yet had the chance to read the changes made to the bill.

The crowd filled up the area outside the Senate gallery, and included teachers, firefighters and other public workers.

"I feel a little bit bad that they showed up and didn't, weren't here for any fireworks," Cullimore said. "I think this will also give time for their unions to message to them where we're actually at this point. So maybe it'll bring down the temperature a little bit."

Many of the union members said they appreciate the changes being made but still don't agree with the bill.

"I think the substitutions are an attempt to appease people, but the bill itself is unnecessary and does not solve any of the problems that our state is facing. It doesn't help children, it doesn't help teachers, it hurts our community," Yeates said.

After the bill had been circled, the Utah Education Association held an afternoon press conference to address HB267 as well as the substitution made.

Read the full story at Deseret.com.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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Caitlin Keith, Deseret NewsCaitlin Keith
Caitlin is a trending intern for Deseret News. She covers travel, entertainment and other trending topics.

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