The large -scale crowd descends to Capitol in Utah, calling for the governor of the Union’s veto bill – Daily Herald

Nearly 1,000 teachers, firefighters and other defenders of the Union were packed inside the Capitol Rotonda on Friday, calling on the Government Spencer Cox to veto a controversial bill that undresses the state’s public unions for their ability to bargain collectively.

The HB267 accepted the Senate of Utah on Thursday after a narrow 16-13 votes, with seven Republicans joining six Democrats to vote no. He is now heading for the governor’s desk.

“He has always said he is a casual manager of education,” said Utah Rene Pinky’s Cox Renee Pinki Education Association. “Now is the time to prove that this is not just words, but it is an action that it can take to veto HB267. Utah is watching and we need Bill’s veto. “

The bill does not allow the public unions to deal with collective negotiation, the process in which trade unions meet with employers – in this case a school area, city, district or other state entity – and negotiate a contract for working conditions.

Legislators claim that this protects public funds by ensuring that public unions cannot negotiate the conditions of work that are contrary to the best interests of taxpayers, while giving all the employees more voice to all employees. For example, if the Union of Teachers represents only one -third of the employees in the school neighborhood, it should not be able to negotiate employment contracts on behalf of everyone, MPs said.

It is not clear what Cox will do with the bill. His office on Thursday told Utah News Dispatch that he was following the debate, but did not say if he was planning to sign it.

Calls for a veto, who is strong to Capitol on Friday afternoon, echoing through all five floors of the building, spilling into the chambers of the House and the Senate and sometimes shaking the floor.

Around 3:30 pm on Friday, the teachers carrying red and wore signs, reading “Veto HB267”, headed for the building. At 4 pm the crowd poured the marble steps of the rotunda, growing to about 1000 people. The legislators, who opposed the bill, have joined the chants of “solidarity forever, the union makes us strong!” While others watch the balconies with views of the Rotunda.

The crowd was so big pinky could not deliver its planned remarks about the noise.

“You can see that they have come out today, our members, other unions in the public sector,” she told Utah News. “It just helps us so much to feel that we have the support not only of parents but also of the public.”

This is the most in what is a process, sunk in disputes – teachers, firefighters, police officers, district and municipal workers and members of the Union of the Private Sector overloaded the legislators of this session with calls, texts and emails opposed to the bill. As the bill passed through the legislature, hundreds of Union defenders gathered in protest, speaking in committee meetings and clustered outside the Senate’s chambers as the legislators voted.

Legislators claim that much of the opposition was rooted in incorrect communication regarding what the bill actually does. Only Salt Lake City’s fire department and police departments, along with a handful of school, have alliances that participate in collective negotiation. Sponsors, reporter Jordan Teusher, R-South Jordan, and Senator Kirk Kulimore, R-Sandy, reiterated that the bill “does not dissolve the unions”.

“I stand on politics,” Klimor said on Friday before the protest. “I hope that members of the Union of the Union will receive a message about what the bill really is and what it actually does and at least know what they are protesting.”

When asked about Cullimore’s comments a few hours later, Pinkney replied: “We know what the bill is doing.”

“We have had lawyers in the public sector who violated the bill,” she said.

Now, if their ability to negotiate is eliminated, unions fear that employers will feel authorized to ignore fears. Even unions who did not join the collective negotiation still had the opportunity that lever gave them, she said.

“This is one of the challenges we can face,” Pinky said. “Our teachers may start seeing stagnant salaries.”

The bill embarked on a confused path through the legislature, closely crossing both the House and the Senate, seeing a broad bilateral opposition. When he reached the Senate, Kulimore said he and Tesher work on a compromise so that the unions and some of the more shryptic legislators embark on board – but instead of voting for a changed version of the bill, the senators still voted for the original version S

The next day, an amendment was released, which would still allow collective negotiation, but in fact it was never accepted. In the coming days, legislators claim that the opposition continues to be poured. The compromise “has never happened,” Kulimore said, and instead of insisting on the changed version, he called for voting for the original.

“We feel incredibly transmitted by the legislative process,” Pinni said. “We had gone through the negotiation process to try to get a new version of the bill, and to return to the first (version) was just incredibly disappointing.”

Now Pinkney and thousands of teachers in Utah, firefighters, police officers and other public officials are striving to veto the account, which he often does not possess. He denied seven bills, which he called “unnecessary” in 2024, while placing two in the law without his signature. And in 2023 he did not betray any veto.

“Cox government, people say, veto this account and don’t delay! “The crowd chanted on Friday.

Utah News Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, a country’s largest non-profit organization in the country.