Labor groups seeking to repeal Utah’s recent ban on public sector collective bargaining are coming up on their deadline to gather enough signatures to put the issue on the ballot.
To trigger a referendum vote in 2026, the coalition of labor unions must collect 140,748 signatures from registered voters. Additionally, those voters have to represent at least 8% of voters in 15 of the state’s 29 Senate Districts. The Protect Utah Workers coalition includes both public and private labor unions. Educator, firefighter, law enforcement and municipal employee groups are among those that have signed on.
The groups started their efforts in March and the last day to collect signatures is April 15. If they are successful, the collective bargaining ban will be put on hold until voters decide whether it should be repealed.
“This is the last inning, and we need everyone who wants to sign the petition to sign it and let the people decide,” said Utah Education Association President Renée Pinkney.
While Utah’s referendum threshold is hard to achieve, Pinkney said she’s feeling optimistic.
“We are going to hit it out of the ballpark.”.
The groups want to go well above the required amount of signatures since some of them will likely be invalid. That could be because the signer isn’t registered to vote, their handwriting is not legible or the information they put down doesn’t match their voter record. Additionally, opponents of the referendum have 45 days to try and convince people to remove their signatures. Conservative groups that supported the ban, like Americans for Prosperity-Utah, have already been campaigning to try and convince people not to sign it.
According to Pinkney, about 5,000 union members and volunteers have been out collecting signatures. For the last month, they have been stationed outside of libraries and events, as well as in coffee shops and breweries.
Some volunteers have even gone a step further, hosting their own unique events centered around signing the referendum.
In downtown Salt Lake City, Tomoe Tattoo hosted a “Solidarity Tattoo Flash Event” on April 11 where people could sign, eat a hotdog off the grill and get a union or referendum-inspired tattoo. Millcreek resident Richard Cardenas partnered with Tomoe Tattoo owner Marcos Chang to host the event.
Cardenas said symbols hold power and the tattoos show solidarity with the unions, “that we support them.”
Chang said marking your body with a tattoo is a strong form of expression, and can represent something you want to commemorate, pay homage to or feel strongly about.
Most of the designs for the event featured the outline of Utah with a symbol related to unions, a specific public sector job or the state generally on the inside.
Freeman Stevenson, who is a member of Teamsters Local 222 and works in the private sector, got a tattoo on his bicep of a raised fist on top of the outline of the state
“The raised fist in solidarity is a classic union symbol going back, you know, over a century,” he said.
Stevenson said he wanted to physically show his support for the unions, but also to commemorate the fight against the state’s collective bargaining ban. He’s been out collecting signatures himself.
As a private sector employee, Stevenson won’t be impacted by the ban, but he said “an injury to one is an injury to all.”
“This is a moment. It's been really cool to work with a lot of other union brothers and sisters from different unions in the state,” Stevenson said. “[The] public sector and private sector have been coming out and supporting this. No matter what, at least we're fighting, no matter how it works out. So yeah, might as well commemorate this moment.”
Stevenson said it is unfair that lawmakers passed the ban despite strong opposition from unions and community members, and that collective bargaining helps unions get better wages and working conditions. Without that practice, Stevenson said he thinks things will get worse for public employees, even those who never had a collective bargaining agreement
“If [lawmakers] think this is such a popular and wise thing, then let the public decide on it,” Stevenson said.
