The Park City Education Association plans to participate in a signature-gathering push as part of a statewide movement to repeal House Bill 267.
Gov. Spencer Cox in February signed the bill, which prohibits members of public sector unions from engaging in collective bargaining, including teachers, police officers, firefighters and nurses. The Utah Education Association has described it as “union busting.”
“In Park City, we have this positive relationship with the district office and with the board members and the superintendent to the point where we know that we can continue to have conversations with them, but obviously we’ll be making sure we are within the boundaries of the law,” said Mary Morgan, co-president of the Park City Education Association. “But as far as the referendum goes, yes, we will absolutely be gathering signatures for the referendum starting on Monday.”
Labor unions across the state have 30 days to collect and submit 140,000 signatures from registered voters to the Lieutenant Governor’s Office, but the Utah Education Association is aiming for a total of 200,000 signatures just in case. If the initiative is successful, voters will decide the fate of H.B. 267 on Election Day in 2026.
“The catch is going to be, for us in Park City, to really be aware and focused on the fact that we have to have Utah-registered voters, and we have a lot of people here for tourism,” Morgan said. “We have to ask the question of, ‘Are you a registered voter in the state of Utah?’ Because if they’re not, then that would be invalid, so we have to be very cautious about that, more so in Park City than in other places in Utah.”
Morgan said community members can volunteer to gather signatures online by visiting protectutahworkers.com, but the Park City Education Association also plans to table for signatures at local businesses.
“We are supportive of the (Utah Education Association) and all the labor unions’ desire to do a referendum because nobody wants for this law to actually be in place at all,” Morgan said. “We know that we’re going to have to deal with it for probably the next year, but we will be gathering signatures in the public, for example, probably setting up some tables in front of grocery stores, shopping centers, wherever we can go and gather signatures. But we’re definitely going to need the help of the public to do that.”