Public employee unions gathering signatures for collective bargaining referendum

SALT LAKE CITY — A massive effort is underway to gather enough signatures to reverse a recently-passed law that would ban collective bargaining for public employees.

A coalition of several public employee unions, representing teachers, firefighters, police officers and more, are trying to reverse it by putting a referendum on the next ballot.

They launched a signature gathering effort on Saturday. Brad Asay, President of the American Federation of Teachers union in Utah, said they’ve had many people come forward to sign the petition and volunteer to collect signatures.

 

“They’re coming in, they’re like, ‘I want to volunteer. I want to do something. I don’t feel like my voice was heard,'” Asay said. “When we opposed this bill, and when they talked to their legislators, so they said, ‘you know what, we want to see this reversed.'”

So far, they have had a good turnout of people interested in contributing to the effort.

“It’s been non-stop, since we launched on Saturday, of people coming (to) not only sign the petition, but … picking up packets, going through the training we have for them online, and going out,” Asay said. “It’s just been incredible.”

They need to collect the signatures of at least 8% of registered voters in Utah. And the signatures must come from at least 15 of the 29 senate districts. That means they need 140,748 valid signatures by April 16.

For more information or to join the effort, they ask that you visit their website.

Related: Utah Republicans take aim at teachers unions amid political clash over education