Almost another $177 million is proposed for teacher professional time, a Career and Technical Education Catalyst grant program, school supplies, materials, student teacher stipends, and the Grow Your Own Educator Pipeline grant.
No union was required to get these increases. The lawmakers of the state decided it on their own, demonstrating to teachers and students alike in the state how much the public cares about education. That care is maximized by removing the middleman unions that insert themselves between the taxpayer who balances many needs across the state, students, and teachers, who deserve the market rate and our respect for their services, and have every right to individually walk away from their jobs if they do not feel adequately compensated. They shouldn’t have the right to influence others to do the same through collective bargaining and the implicit threat of a strike that would bring essential services to a standstill.
In early February, Utah joined the Carolinas as the only states to ban collective bargaining by all public sector employees, including police, firefighters, teachers, municipal workers, and transit workers. These people are heroes, and for precisely this reason, unions should never threaten strikes that would impede their critical work. Rather than pit critical workers against taxpayers, as public sector unions do, legislators are better placed to mediate between the two sides in the budgetary process and decide when pay raises are needed.
That was a profound concept. Our democracy is all the union we need. It represents all the people, including taxpayers and workers, not just a small fraction of the above who happen to be in a public sector union.
The ban takes effect on July 1 and will provide security to users of their services, increase the number of jobs, increase the budget for necessary equipment upgrades, make local government more efficient, and reduce taxes.
The bill’s cosponsor, Senate Majority Leader Kirk Cullimore, said during the debate that it “is designated to protect taxpayers, uphold the integrity of public funds, and ensure that public employee practices are fair and transparent.” He continued, “There’s a proliferation of public employee unions that are negotiating against what could be seen as the taxpayer.”
Public sector unions in states like New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and California, on the other hand, have faced sky-high salaries and pensions that taxpayers must pay and fiscal decline that saddles states in debt for generations. Even in Texas, state law allows firefighters and police to bargain collectively. While public sector labor laws are handled by states, federal law protects collective bargaining in the private sector. That should come under greater scrutiny by lawmakers in Washington.
The bans in Utah and the Carolinas short-circuit legalized corruption between politicians and union bosses, whereby unions fund political campaigns from union dues, and politicians enable unions to raise wages and union dues yet further. A few unionized workers prosper from higher wages and benefits but at the expense of weaker job creation for the nonunionized and unemployed and higher taxes for all.
Public services also suffer. In one Utah school district, entry pay rose to $60,400, which is 75 percent more than in 2016. Yet math proficiency fell from 46 percent in 2017 to 38 percent in 2022. Utah’s transit authority spent almost as much on compensation in 2024 as the full operating budget from eight years prior.
Another proposed law in Utah is to enshrine the “right to work” as part of the state constitution. This would make it illegal to discriminate against non-union members in their hiring and would ban extra protections for the unionized when firing is necessary. Right-to-work states across the country tend to get more investment because production is more efficient.
The unions have immense political power, so few states are willing to take them on despite the benefits from a right to work and an end to strong-arming by public sector unions. It’s to Utah’s credit that the state joined the few courageous enough to do so. Let’s hope our lawmakers in Washington follow their example.
