- Utah voters will decide on public union collective bargaining in November 2026.
- Gov. Spencer Cox signed an order placing the controversial HB267 on the ballot next year.
- The law is on hold until the vote is complete.
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah voters will have a chance to weigh in on the controversial law that bans public sector unions from collective bargaining in November of 2026, after Gov. Spencer Cox signed an executive order officially placing the issue on the next general election ballot.
Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson confirmed Saturday that organizers of the effort against HB267 had met the threshold of signatures required from at least 8% of the active voters in the state, including at least 8% of voters in a majority of the state's Senate districts. There had been some questions about whether the governor would try to move up the date of the referendum to coincide with this fall's municipal general elections, but Cox signed an executive order Monday setting the date for Nov. 3, 2026.
Utah's referendum process allows voters the opportunity to overturn laws passed by the Utah Legislature, but the barriers to qualifying a referendum for the ballot are steep and not often used. Although voters will get the final say on HB267, the law has been blocked from taking effect until after the vote next November.
Henderson's confirmation of the signatures capped off a frantic couple of months following this year's legislative session, during which opponents of the bill rushed to collect the requisite signatures. The group turned in more than 320,000 signatures in April and initially cleared the threshold to place a referendum on the ballot later that month, but supporters of the law had until Saturday to try to convince enough people to remove their names to block it.
Both sides will now have time for a respite and to prepare closing arguments for and against the referendum, which will likely heat up in the months before next year's general election.
HB267 was one of the most closely-watched bills during the 2025 general legislative session, as teachers, firefighters and police officers argued it would strip workers of a valuable tool to negotiate for better wages and working conditions. Supporters of the bill, however, such as House Speaker Mike Schultz, said it is "trying to balance" the interests of public employees with those of the taxpayers.
