Dear Governor Cox:
On behalf of 18,000 public school educators, the Utah Education Association urges you to veto HB 267 Sub 1 Public Sector Labor Union Amendments.
Throughout the session, we attempted to work with Rep. Teuscher and Sen. Cullimore to address specific concerns with the legislation and reach a compromise. We agreed to remove our opposition and take a “watch” position on Substitute 3, but the Legislature instead moved forward with Substitute 1.
The impact of this bill was consistently misrepresented as affecting only a few groups that collectively bargain. In fact, the bill’s language clearly states, “a public employer may not recognize a labor organization as a bargaining agent of public employees or collectively bargain” (lines 199–202). Any negotiation or bargaining between an employee group and a public employer is prohibited, not just collective bargaining.
Utah is a right-to-work state with no law requiring school districts to negotiate salaries, working conditions or policies. Bargaining happens because it benefits both school districts and educators. As a right-to-work state, no public employee is required to join a labor organization to benefit from a negotiated agreement with the employer.
HB 267 Sub 1 also imposes extensive reporting for a labor organization collecting membership dues via payroll deduction (lines 271-278) even though no membership dues are used for political activity. The bill specifically targets labor organizations, while other entities, such as insurance companies and banks, may collect payment via payroll deduction and engage in political activity.
Finally, the bill singles out UEA to be forcibly removed from the Utah Retirement System (URS) and requires UEA to bear the cost (lines 427-455). There are dozens of entities that are not public employers participating in URS, yet they are exempt from this targeted language. To our knowledge, a forced withdrawal such as this has never occurred in Utah, especially against a founding URS member.
The goal of HB 267 Sub 1 is to silence educators and their collective voice. Educators deserve a say in their profession, input on their salary and working conditions, and a voice in policies affecting their classrooms and schools. Please stand with Utah’s public school educators and veto HB 267 Sub 1.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Renée Pinkney
President, Utah Education Association
