HB 267 – Public Sector Labor Union Amendments
HB267 aims to dramatically curtail what public sector unions are able to do. Public sector unions consist of fire fighter and other emergency worker unions, police and other law enforcement unions, the Utah Public Employees Association which covers most state employees, and, the big one, the Utah Education Association. The bill will make the following changes:
- Require any public sector union whose dues are collected by a government entity to provide an annual accounting of how the dues were spent.
- Public employee union dues are often collected through payroll deduction.
- The money is withheld by the government entity employing the union member and forwarded to the union.
- Currently, there is no specific mechanism to report how that money, collected at taxpayer expense, is being used.
- Prohibit any public sector union from engaging in collective bargaining.
- Prohibit any taxpayer money from being used to deter or encourage membership in a public sector union.
- Prohibit any union employees from participating in the Utah Retirement System.
- This is not all union members, just any staff employed by the union itself.
- Any staff members already in the retirement system will be able to remain in the system and collect their pension at retirement time.
- Allows the state to offer professional liability insurance to any public employee.
- This is currently only offered by unions, but analysis has shown that a statewide insurance plan could be offered at a much lower price than unions currently offer.
All public sector unions are strongly opposed to the bill stating that it will greatly diminish their ability to protect members and other employees in the sector. Those in favor of the bill state that public sector unions create a significant conflict of interest where politically active unions can strongly influence who is elected to office and who will have the power to set a union member’s wages and working conditions.
The bill has passed the legislature and is on the Governor’s desk awaiting his signature or veto. You can see the bill here.