Caroleine James July 7, 2025
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. {read}