Utah's new union-busting law demonstrates the raw power of the Legislature's Republican supermajorities.
Small Lake City
By Benjamin Wood @BjaminWood
On Capitol Hill, a bill is very much like the proverbial shark—it moves forward or it dies. And for one week in early February, it looked like Utah's unions might have killed a bad bill.
HB267, which bans collective bargaining in the public sector (teachers, police, firefighters, etc.), passed the House in a relatively tight 42-32 vote. When it reached the Senate for the first of two required debates, several lawmakers voiced reservations and the bill's sponsor indicated compromise language was being drafted ahead of final passage, expected the next day. As that final vote went from "tomorrow" to "next week" and then to "sometime soon," opponents had reason to believe that the rising tide of public opinion was working to curb the worst habits of state government.
But then, on Feb. 6, the Senate spiked any notion of a compromise and, on a tight 16-13 vote, voted to send the ban to Gov. Spencer Cox, who signed HB267 into law on Valentine's Day. Glimmers of resistance continued, but it was clear that legislative leaders considered the matter settled. The bill had the votes.
It's a crushing blow to organized labor, already on the ropes after decades of anti-union lawfare. But it demonstrates how little public opinion and debate ultimately matter when one party secures control. In the Utah House, Republicans occupy 61 out of 75 seats. A simple majority is 38 votes; a two-thirds majority is 50 votes. The Senate has a similar dynamic, with Republicans holding 23 out of 29 seats. And the majority caucuses maintain a formal hierarchy where individual members are incentivized to go with the flow and are punished for defiance.
It's also a credit to the hard work of union organizers—present in large numbers on Capitol Hill, with capacity crowds spilling out daily from galleries and committee rooms—that so many lawmakers defected on HB267. The bill failed to clear the two-thirds bar and is thus vulnerable to a longshot citizen referendum. But even if opponents were to succeed at placing a referendum on the ballot, and even if a majority voted to override the ban, the same anti-union Republican supermajorities would just return to their seats, hungry for the next opportunity to stab organized labor in the heart.
Sure, a handful of vulnerable lawmakers could fall to challengers in the next election—but to what real consequence? The Senate president and House speaker, secure in their offices for as long as they choose to hold them, could lose 20 Republicans without breaking a sweat. And that kind of turnover takes more than a "wave" election, it requires a Biblical flood.
Protests and demonstrations matter. Showing up to fill rooms and provide testimony matters. But as the 2025 session winds down, remember that our state government is not built to achieve the best results. It is built, above all else, to maintain incumbency and the aims of a partisan apparatus dominated by ideologues who care little for what you think as long as the machine keeps running.
About The Author
Benjamin Wood
Lifelong Utahn Benjamin Wood has worn the mantle of City Weekly's news editor since 2021. He studied journalism at Utah State University and previously wrote for The Salt Lake Tribune, the Deseret News and Entertainment Weekly
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