Utah Senate advances bill limiting public-sector collective bargaining after hours of debate

The Utah Senate advanced First Substitute House Bill 267, a measure that would restrict collective bargaining for many public employees and impose new reporting and conduct limits on labor organizations, by a roll-call vote to read the bill for a third time.

Senator Daniel Cullimore, sponsor of the bill, moved that the first substitute of House Bill 267 be read a third time; the motion carried on a roll call tally the Senate recorded as 18 in favor, 10 opposed and 1 absent. That procedural vote sends the measure deeper into the chamber’s consideration, where sponsors said a further substitute would be offered.

The bill drew extensive floor debate from members across the political spectrum. “This bill does not abolish public sector unions,” Cullimore told colleagues in his opening remarks, saying the measure would remove a statutory mandate for collective bargaining in many public-employee settings while preserving employees’ ability to join unions and to pursue representation through a certification process in a substitute the sponsor described as forthcoming. “It puts the unions on the same footing as everybody else,” he said, arguing that public resources should not be used…