"It's called 'organized labor' for a reason": Gov. Cox congratulates referendum campaign after pro-union signature haul. 

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• Kristin Murphy | Pool Photo
• Gov. Spencer Cox takes questions from reporters at PBS Utah on Thursday, April 17, 2025.

UNIVERSITY—Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said Thursday that he warned his legislative colleagues a recently-passed ban on public sector collective bargaining could backfire, awakening and emboldening the same labor unions the GOP supermajority was working to diminish.

While Cox ultimately signed that legislation—HB267—into law, he said he expected it to result in a public referendum, which appears increasingly likely after a coalition of labor and workers' rights organizations submitted more than double the amount of required signatures to election administrators on Wednesday.

"It’s called 'organized labor' for a reason," Cox said. "They’re actually organized."

While the total number of signatures collected exceeds the state's legal requirement, a significant number are likely to be disqualified under a host of rules imposed on referendum organizers and a period of time in which opponents can mount a counter-campaign urging voters to rescind their support. The Protect Utah Workers campaign was also unable to confirm whether they had satisfied the state's requirements for geographical representation, in which referendum campaigns must hit minimum signature thresholds in at least 15 of the state's 29 counties.

But the campaign expressed confidence in their signature collection efforts on Wednesday and its implications for broader support among the electorate to reconsider HB267. And Cox said that ballot question on the bill would be a "healthy" expression of the public's democratic authority.

"I don’t like initiatives but I do like referendums," Cox said. "It is a check on the legislative power."

The governor's comments came during his monthly televised press conference at PBS Utah. During a series of questions on national topics, Cox was ambivalent toward the Donald Trump administration's sprawling controversies.

On the topic of Harvard University potentially losing its tax-exempt status, Cox said that Republicans should "tread very carefully," lest they open the door to retaliatory escalation under a future Democratic president. But when asked about Trump and the Justice Department defying court orders that challenge unlawful deportations, Cox suggested it is the "prerogative" of the U.S. president to bend and even break democratic norms.

"We’ve certainly had constitutional struggles before between the courts and executives," Cox said. "It’s not he worst thing to challenge those norms, see where the lines are and then work within those lines."

Referring to the high-profile case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia—a Maryland man whose unlawful deportation resulted in a unanimous Supreme Court ruling against the Trump administration—Cox suggested that it's ultimately right that Garcia be removed from the country, but that it's important he be brought back to the United States and afforded due process.

"There’s just no nuance in the discussion—either you hate the Constitution or you want terrorists living in America, those are the two choices," Cox said. "I think there’s another choice out there, and that is you follow the court order."

Cox was also asked about the recent decision of the Sundance Film Festival to end its 40-year partnership with Utah and relocate to Boulder, Colorado. The governor said that, since the decision was announced, he and other state leaders have been inundated with calls from interested parties in entertainment, music and tech who are looking to fill the void left by the nation's premier showcase for independent film.

While he couldn't speak to what this new event might be, he said Utahns should expect to see larger proposals taking shape in the coming months.

"It’s been amazing, the repercussions of Sundance leaving. It’s been the best thing that could happen," Cox said. "I think whatever we do, it will be bigger."