After securing more than 320,000 signatures, the petition to repeal HB 267 — a law banning collective bargaining for public sector labor unions — qualified for the Nov. 2026 ballot.
The petition gathered more than twice the required threshold, setting a record for the most signatures ever collected for a referendum in Utah. The signature drive was organized by Protect Utah Workers, a campaign launched in March 2025 by the Utah Education Association and a coalition of unions.
After signatures were verified, Gov. Spencer Cox issued an executive order in June 2025, pausing the bill’s implementation and placing HB 267 before voters during Utah’s next general election. Cox had signed the bill into law earlier this year.
To examine the bill’s public response, the Chronicle spoke with Utah Senators Thatcher and Riebe, along with former Salt Lake County Councilwoman Ghorbani.
Political Disconnection
Sen. Dan Thatcher, a former Republican representing West Valley City who left the party during the 2025 legislative session, spoke out about what he saw as growing political disconnection between lawmakers and voters. “I left the Republican Party because they’re not listening, and I don’t think that’s likely to change in the future,” he said in an interview with the Chronicle.
He referenced a meeting involving Senate Republican Leadership, where they discussed public sector labor union representatives. According to Thatcher, Utah Senate President Stuart Adams asked the group, “Can’t the leaders control their people?” The Chronicle could not confirm Adams’s quote.
Thatcher emphasized that this was not just a position Utah Republicans held with union leaders, but a reflection of how the legislature viewed its relationship with the public. “The criticism was specifically that the union leaders were not controlling their members, as if that is leadership,” Thatcher said. “And that is the absolute attitude taken by legislative leadership towards members of their caucus.”
According to a bipartisan report from Red America, Blue America Research, 80% of voters oppose “changing our state’s laws to weaken employment protections for health care workers, educators, first responders and other essential workers.” Additionally, 78% of Utah voters supported Gov. Cox vetoing HB267, according to the report. “I left [the party] because I believe a duly elected legislator has a constitutional and moral obligation to represent the best interests of their constituents, not to be controlled by their leader,” Thatcher added. After leaving the party, Thatcher said he joined the Forward Party, an alternative, centrist party focused on protecting constitutional rights.
Limiting Public Input
Thatcher criticized the caucus for passing a labor restriction without union input or collaboration. “Labor had not been invited to be part of the discussions or conversations. This was all done without their participation,” he said, citing HB267 as a significant contributor to his decision to leave the Republican Party.
Sen. Kathleen Riebe, D-Cottonwood Heights, also criticized the legislature for enacting union legislation without their collaboration, saying “it’s un-American that you don’t listen to the people that are coming up here to speak.” She also expressed her concerns about how legislative decisions were being made. “If we’re gonna have committee meetings, we should make our decisions from the testimonies, not beforehand and from behind closed doors,” she added. “It’s an egregious violation of transparency.”
Riebe said HB267’s unpopularity drew an uncommonly large number of bill opponents to the Capitol. “There were thousands, and thousands and thousands of people that came up every day [in opposition] when they heard these bills,” Riebe said. “There were four to five overflow rooms, which is unheard of.” She noted that, out of hundreds of voters eager to speak against HB267 at the Capitol, only a few were allowed to make a public comment. “The hallways were filled with union workers,” she said. “We had police, we had fire, we had plow drivers, we had airline pilots, county clerks, I mean, we had every walk of life there.”
Neither bill sponsor Rep. Jordan Teuscher, R-Sandy, nor Sen. Kirk Cullimore, R-Cottonwood Heights, responded to questions about the bill’s unpopularity or concerns over legislative disconnection from voters.
Unions Excluded
Thatcher said that ignoring public input is becoming normalized in Utah’s Legislature, criticizing the passage of HB267 as an example of state leadership enacting major policy without consulting affected groups, like unions. “We now have people who say ‘This is what we’re doing,’ and you’re either on the bus or under it,” he said. “If somebody ran a bill and said ‘We did not allow the stakeholders to have input’ or see what we were working on, we would have killed that bill dead in its tracks.” Thatcher referenced his fourteen years of experience in the Utah State Legislature. “In the old days, that never would have flown,” he said.
A 2024 report from the Utah Foundation, a nonpartisan research firm, reveals that political dysfunction is a top concern among Utah voters. According to the study, more than three in five Utah voters think the state is on the wrong track, which is the largest portion since 2004. Shireen Ghorbani, former member of the Salt Lake County Council, said she believes this political dysfunction stems from inaccurate representation of constituents in the legislature. “There is a groundswell of political dissatisfaction across party lines with some very unpopular legislation that these legislators continue to move forward with,” Ghorbani said, citing the Utah Foundation’s study.
Ghorbani emphasized how this dissatisfaction goes beyond individual policy and reflects a broader disconnect between Utah’s elected lawmakers and their constituents. “The broader government function is not meeting the moment,” she added. “It’s so out of touch with how people are struggling to make ends meet and live day to day. There’s a deep-seated frustration that feels really collective.”
“Completely Retaliatory”
Riebe told the Chronicle in an interview that she viewed HB 267 as “completely retaliatory” against public sector education workers for opposing Amendment A, which would have reshaped how tax revenue is allocated for public education.
In an opinion article published in the Wall Street Journal in February, bill sponsor Rep. Jordan Teuscher began by criticizing what he called “union-wooing Republicans.” “Unions will inevitably turn on you, leaving workers and taxpayers in the lurch,” he said.
In the editorial, Teuscher expressed his frustrations with the Utah Education Association(UEA), explaining that he had paused legislation to require collective bargaining recertifications “as a sign of good faith,” because the union agreed to remain neutral on Amendment A during the 2024 Legislative Session. After the session ended, the union changed its position to oppose the amendment. “Not only did it oppose the amendment, it also filed a lawsuit to remove it from the November ballot,” Teuscher added.
According to UEA President Renée Pinkney in a March 2024 press release, the union’s Board of Directors voted unanimously to oppose Amendment A, a change from previously having no position. “This decision was not taken lightly. The UEA Board of Directors believes the proposed amendment goes against our values and challenges what we stand for,” said Pinkney.
During the next legislative session in 2025, Teuscher sponsored HB267, the ban on collective bargaining for public sector labor unions. “The union exploited our good faith. I introduced a new bill this year that prohibited public-sector collective bargaining,” wrote Teuscher. “If unions in Utah … were willing to stab lawmakers in the back, they’ll do the same anywhere. They aren’t interested in protecting taxpayers or empowering workers, and no partnership with unions will help Republicans advance these principles,” he added.
According to the legislature’s fiscal note for HB 267, the bill’s enactment likely won’t lead to any taxpayer savings. HB267 could increase regulatory burdens for Utah residents and businesses, according to the report. As the referendum’s success has paused HB267, Utah voters will have the final say over the collective bargaining ban on their November 2026 ballot.
