New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani blocked a bonus for teaching assistants on August 19, filing a lawsuit against city council after it unanimously passed the bill.
Called the RESPECT Check Act, the bill would require the city Department of Education (DOE) to give bonuses to about 39,000 paraprofessionals over the course of four installments during the 2026-27 school year, prorated based on the number of days worked during each period with a maximum of $10,000 total.
Paraprofessionals provide individualized services for special-needs students and early childhood education inside the classroom. They are among the lowest strata in education: work conditions can be strenuous and at times dangerous, and pay starts at $32,098 and can reach a maximum of $55,541 after 15 years, per their union contract. According to 2023 city data, median rent was $1,641 a month, more than two-thirds the starting pay for paraprofessionals. (At that time, starting pay was $29,302).
The council has 30 days to respond to the mayor’s lawsuit.
Mamdani’s opposition to the bill is centered around protecting the city’s executive branch in its position to undermine worker pay and conditions.
The Mamdani administration argues that the bill is in violation of the Taylor Law, an anti-worker state statute that regulates the collective bargaining process for public sector workers, including by making it illegal to strike. The administration has accused city council of undermining collective bargaining, setting a precedent for workers to go outside the limits of the Taylor Law in their fight for better pay and conditions.
Mamdani advisor and former city labor relations commissioner Robert W. Linn explained that the lawsuit is aimed at curbing workers struggles, telling The New York Times, “If you don’t have a rigorous collective bargaining approach, then parties are going to be running to the City Council, to the State Legislature, they’re going to be engaging in work stoppages. I think there is the potential to return to that chaos,” referencing strikes by public employees in the 1960s. The administration has made it clear that the lawsuit aims to maintain the “labor peace” status quo in the public sector, curtailing workers struggles by sustaining anti-strike legislation.
The administration’s move is backed by the ultra-reactionary New York Post Editorial Board. In an August 20 op-ed titled “Mamdani does right in fighting City Council teacher-aide giveaway,” the rag writes, “Lawmakers can’t reduce union-worker pay without collective bargaining; letting the council add pay would badly undermine a core mayoral authority.” The NYP defends centralizing power in the mayor’s office, preserving its authority over collective bargaining to minimize pay and benefits for workers and maximize exploitation.
City council, headed by Speaker Julie Menin, says the bonuses would increase retention and attract more workers. The city pays for private services for children with special needs if unable to accommodate them, spending over $1 billion in 2025 according to the Manhattan Institute think tank. The city has 1,600 paraprofessional vacancies, according to union estimates.
The passage of the legislation comes amid deadlock in negotiations between the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), representing paraprofessionals, and the city DOE. The UFT paraprofessional contract expires in 2027.
The bonus would exist outside the union contract and collective bargaining. Bonuses are often offered by companies during negotiations as a bribe to accept contracts without raising base pay or otherwise addressing working conditions.
The UFT has spoken out in favor of the bill and denounced Mamdani’s lawsuit. The union writes on its website, “We are prepared to continue fighting for the RESPECT check and the paraprofessionals who keep our schools running. We have not fought this hard for this bill to have the mayor break yet another campaign promise and take this well-deserved money out of the hands of those who need it most.”
The UFT represents nearly 200,000 members according to its website, and its leadership has historically been influential in city and state politics.
Mamdani had previously voiced support for the bill while on the campaign trail last October, saying that the bill is “critically important” and citing that the vacancies are in part caused by “paying people a wage they cannot afford to live in this city anymore.”
Image: Zohran Mamdani at a rally in October 2024. Credit: Bingjiefu He.
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