Salt Lake City has approved a new labor contract with its police union, fewer than two months before a new law strips collective bargaining powers for public workers.
The city’s latest memorandum of understanding with the Salt Lake Police Association, representing police officers, was adopted by the City Council late Tuesday — with HB267 poised to take effect July 1.
Tuesday’s nod also comes as Mayor Erin Mendenhall has made a high priority of supporting the police and recruiting new hires as the department works to enact portions of her latest plan for stepped-up public safety enforcement.
The unanimous vote, with one council member absent, essentially ratified much of an existing contract on work conditions that has been in place with the police force since 2024, while also locking in a three-year framework for additional pay rises.
Police officers in Utah’s capital will see a base pay raise of 7% effective June 22 for all levels of experience, including new officers. Subsequent hikes of 3.3% and 2% in base pay for the department’s roughly 630 officers would kick in Jan. 4, 2026, and June 20, 2027, respectively.
Those raises will take effect pending approval by the council of money allocated to pay for them, which is expected as part of its yearly budget talks, now ongoing.
At Mendenhall’s request, the council is also eyeing new budget amendments related to other parts of her public safety plan, including adding up to $1 million for police overtime and another $320,000 on top of $1.4 million already set aside for cleanups of illegal encampments, conducted by private contractor Advantage Services.
The union pact comes as the city seeks to anticipate the effects of HB267 on future relations with its labor unions, including the long-standing police association.
Campaign against HB267
Unionized workers make up about 60% of all Salt Lake City employees.
Passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Spencer Cox, HB267 bans collective bargaining with government workers in Utah, meaning public employee unions can no longer represent members in contract talks, and public employers are forbidden from signing any agreements such talks might yield.
The Salt Lake Police Association is one of three unions officially recognized by the city for the purposes of collective bargaining — at least before the change in state law.
The other two — a chapter of the International Association of Fire Fighters, representing city firefighters; and one for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME, representing other government workers — currently have contracts that run through 2026 and 2027.
Even as the council voted Tuesday, Utah’s labor organizers were working intensely to complete signature-gathering efforts ahead of an April 15 deadline in hopes of placing a referendum repealing the law on this fall’s statewide ballot.
Members with the Utah Education Association, AFL-CIO, Utah Public Employees Association, Professional Firefighters of Utah, and Utah AFSCME joined the repeal effort.
Labor groups submitted some 320,000 signatures Wednesday to the Salt Lake County Clerk’s Office, more than double the number required, making the union-backed Protect Utah Workers campaign the largest signature-gathering effort in state history.
Those signatures must now be verified by county clerks, a process could take a few weeks.
Republican lawmakers, including HB267 sponsoring Rep. Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan, have contended the measure protects taxpayer funds and adds transparency.
In signing the bill, Cox said he was “disappointed” that the legislative process “did not ultimately deliver the compromise that at one point was on the table and that some stakeholders had accepted.”
Labor leaders, including those behind the repeal effort, say HB267 deprives public servants of their voice and was intended in retaliation against actions taken by the Utah Education Association, the state’s main teachers union.
Update on SLC library effort to unionize
Mendenhall opposed HB267 and vowed in her State of the City speech in late January that even if it passed, “it will not strip away my commitment to treating our workers fairly, to competitive compensation, or to equitable benefits.”
As debate around HB267 was taking shape, the City Council and the city’s governing Library Board endorsed a road map for separate efforts by employees of the Salt Lake City Public Library System to also form a union.
Library Director and CEO Noah Baskett told the council Tuesday “we continue to be at the table with them and talking through that process” toward a vote on union formation.
Baskett said the city was “mindful” of limits HB267 would impose on that effort once it took effect. “But until any of those dates happen,” he said, “we continue to move forward.”
A representative of the would-be library union did not immediately respond to a request Wednesday for comment.
Follow @tonysemerad
