The Utah Legislature voted in a Dec. 9 special session to repeal an anti-labor law adopted earlier this year after a coalition of 21 labor unions, including the Utah Education Association, collected 250,000 signatures in favor of a referendum to repeal the new legislation.

The law, which Gov. Spencer Cox signed in February, had barred public employee unions from collectively bargaining with their government employers about wages and benefits.

In the face of the great public opposition to the law, the GOP — which holds the governorship and a supermajority in Utah’s House and Senate — concluded after months of internal debate that repealing the measure would avoid a costly campaign and the potential for losing a repeal referendum and spiking Democratic turnout in 2026. Cox, who supported the repeal, said that when he had signed the bill, he did not like it.

Protect Utah Workers said in a statement that repealing the law “preserves the rights of first responders, educators and all other critical public workers who improve the lives of Utahans every day.”

The Salt Lake Tribune, Dec. 7, Dec. 9