Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed House Bill 267 into law last Friday, banning public labor unions from collective bargaining.

Beginning July 1, Utah public employers are prohibited from recognizing a labor organization as a bargaining agent for public employees, and public employers are prohibited from entering into collective bargaining contracts, the bill states.

There are a handful of official public unions in Utah County, including teachers associations that represent each of the county’s three school districts, and a union for Provo firefighters.

Though not all of these unions participate in collective bargaining in an official capacity, union presidents are concerned about the bill.

Christy Giblon, president the Provo Education Association, one of two unions that represents staff members in the Provo City School District, said PEA negotiates with the school district, but she claims the process does not meet the legal definition of collective bargaining because it’s less formal.

However, she is still uncertain what the legal implications of the ban will be on the association’s current relationship with the district.

“This has just created a bunch of legal complications for a relationship that was working well,” Giblon said. “Now our district has to figure out, ‘Well, what can we ask them, and what can’t we ask them?’ And so, yeah, none of us are happy about it.”

Superintendent Wendy Dau agreed that the negotiating process with PEA is more informal but explained that the school board does not finalize agreements until PEA has voted on things.

Dau is hopeful that the way the district works with the association can remain unaffected.

“I think we can continue to plug along,” she said. “There might be some specific details about what it might look like in terms of who gets to sit at the table and what that might be, but we always feel like we have a pretty broad representation of individuals that we talk to, and we’re always going to try to get that feedback.

“I think what you’re hearing is that, overwhelmingly, people are not in support of this bill, and yet it went through anyway. And so that’s where a lot of the frustration is coming from.”

The bill was sponsored by Rep. Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan.

The Utah House of Representatives passed the bill in a 42-32 vote, then the Senate approved it in a 16-13 vote.

Teuscher said one reason he proposed it was because he found many school districts had low union participation, despite the unions being the sole bargaining agent with the district.

He believed the policy leaves a lot of people out of the negotiating process.

“(I’ve) heard stories from teachers where they had an idea, had a concern, they went to their administration,” Teuscher told the Daily Herald. “The administration says, ‘Well, I’m sorry, we have a collective bargaining agreement. You got to go talk to the union.’ They go talk to the union, the union’s like, ‘Well, you’re not a member. Sorry, we’re not interested in your opinion.'”

The bill, he argued, gives the voice back to all public employees.

“That was really one of the main efforts,” he said, “to make sure that everyone has a voice in that process and determining what wages should be, what benefits should be, other workplace discussions.”

Despite the bill’s passage, Teuscher insisted the collective bargaining ban does not completely strip away all of a union’s ability to affect change.

“We’ll continue to allow for the unions to advocate on behalf of their union members to be a part of the discussion, to present their priorities, etc.,” he said. “But when we are coming up with the benefits, wages and policies for our public employees, we’re going to do that through the normal process, and not through an adversarial negotiating process with unions.”

One example of union participation without collective bargaining Teuscher mentioned is within the Nebo School District.

Nebo School District said it has a policy that if the association’s membership rate falls below 50%, it loses its ability to collectively bargain.

Currently, the association’s membership rate is less than the majority, thus it lacks collective bargaining power, said Nebo School District Public Information Officer Seth Sorensen.

NEA president Darwin Deming acknowledged the association does not currently have official collective bargaining power but said NEA disagrees with the policy and interprets it as, “even if we’re under 50%, as long as we are the association with the majority of members, we still become the negotiating body,” he said.

“Our district personnel didn’t see it that way,” Deming added. “They saw it as 50%, but the policy never said ‘50% plus one’ kind of jargon. So we eventually agreed to disagree on that.”

Despite the impasse, though, Sorensen and Deming both said NEA meets with district leaders and has a say in the district’s direction.

And through recent talks with the district, Deming believes their relationship will continue despite the collective bargaining ban.

“They never said, ‘Sorry, we can’t meet, we have to abide by the law.’ They said, ‘We’ll look at the law and do what we can to work around it and be supportive,'” he said.

In Provo, the union does have a majority, as 53% of certified workers and 57% of teachers are a part of PEA, according to Giblon.

Giblon and Deming each reject the notion that staff members outside of the union lack a voice, both saying their associations negotiate contracts for all certified workers, regardless of union involvement.

Giblon further argued that taking away collective bargaining power and making 800 individual employees voice their own concerns “doesn’t make sense.”

Because of the strong relationship between PEA and the Provo City School District, the expectation is that PEA will also maintain at least some level of negotiating power.

The concern, Dau cited, is what happens down the road when leadership changes.

“Right now, they feel really secure, because I think there are a ton of people in these positions that are very pro-teacher, pro-education, pro-let’s-work-with-you,” she said. “We want to do everything we can for you. But if that ever were to shift, I think that’s where that vulnerability and that nervousness comes in from their side.”

Concerns over the bill also stretch beyond the education circle.

Provo Firefighters Union President Gage Eckles told the Daily Herald in a message that states that lack collective bargaining power struggle with recruitment and retention of firefighters and also have greater risks of injuries and death. 

“We negotiate for items that allow us to do our job safer and better so we have the ability to help the community to the best of our abilities,” he said.

Eckles added the bill seemed unnecessary.

“There is a stigma against unions in conservative areas for whatever reason; however, in one of the most conservative cities in the nation, Provo City administration and Provo Firefighters Union work together for Provo citizens,” he said.