SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah lawmakers advanced a bill Thursday that experts say would establish one of the most restrictive labor laws in the country as Republicans seek to curb the political influence of unions serving teachers and other public service professionals.
The GOP proposal would ban collective bargaining across all of Utah's public sectors — education, transit, law enforcement and more. It would bar labor unions from negotiating on behalf of workers for better wages and working conditions.
Many educators, the state's most frequent users of collective bargaining, view the bill as way for Republicans to weaken teachers unions and clear a path for their own education agenda.
“The harm of the bill will be borne by public school educators living and working in every single legislative district,” said Sara Jones of the Utah Education Association. “It sends a message that educators don’t deserve a collective voice in their profession, don’t deserve input on their salaries or working conditions or benefits, or don’t deserve a say in the policies that impact their classrooms.”
Teachers unions are some of the most outspoken opponents of Republican policies in Utah and other states where lawmakers have sought to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs, expand school choice vouchers and restrict transgender bathroom use and sports participation in schools.
The unions tend to skew liberal, which Republicans argue makes them unfit to represent teachers with conservative political views.
“We need all voices to be heard in the teaching profession, and not just those that align with the union and their political views,” said Cole Kelley, a Republican on Utah’s State Board of Education who teaches high school in American Fork.
State Rep. Jordan Teuscher, a South Jordan Republican who is sponsoring the bill, said collective bargaining agreements often restrict workers from participating in their own contract negotiations, only allowing communication between the union representative and the employer. The bill creates a system in which employers can engage directly with all employees when addressing workplace concerns, he said.
The measure passed the GOP-led House Business, Labor and Commerce Committee in a 11-4 vote with support from some of the state’s most powerful Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Schultz.
State employees could still join unions under the bill, but the unions could not formally negotiate on their behalf.
President Donald Trump has backed policies making it harder for workers to unionize, yet his populist appeal helped Republicans make steady gains among union members in the 2024 election. Republicans have tried to bring some blue-collar workers into the fold, but largely from the private sector, said John Logan, a labor expert at San Francisco State University.
“Republicans see teachers unions as the main obstacle to transforming public education the way they would like to,” Logan told The Associated Press. “They want the working class on their side, but public sector unions, they don't have any use for them. Ideologically, they're just an obstacle.”
Logan said Utah's bill is “fairly extreme” and would place the state among the most restrictive for public sector unions, along with North Carolina and South Carolina.
Collective bargaining has been banned for decades across all public sector jobs in the Carolinas. The two states have flip-flopped between having the lowest percentage of union workers in the country for the past two decades, with South Carolina currently in lowest spot at 3%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In Texas and Georgia, only police and firefighters have the right to bargain. They could not do so under the Utah bill, which also faced opposition from firefighters who worried they would not be able to advocate for proper worker safety without union support.
