The United Federation of Teachers has gone from endorsing Mayor Zohran Mamdani to fighting him in court.
The union has filed a legal motion supporting a City Council-approved $10,000 bonus for school paraprofessionals, which the mayor’s administration is suing to block.
Mamdani — who was endorsed in his election run last year by the UFT — claims the way the extra cash for the low-paid education workers was approved by city lawmakers violates state labor law covering contract negotiations with public employee unions.
But lifting the low pay of paras who aid students with disabilities has been a top priority of UFT president Mike Mulgrew, who represents them.
“As the representative of the paraprofessionals, the UFT should be permitted to defend the interests of its members in this important legal proceeding,” the August 25. filing by UFT lawyer Charles Moerdler said.
Starting pay for paras is $33,000 and reaches $56,000 after 15 years.
The pay bump for 10,000 paras would cost the city $324 million.
Mamdani maintains he supports a salary bump for paras or teachers’ aides, but it should be done via collective bargaining or contract talks between his office and the UFT— not dictated by the Council.
The RESPECT Check Act, which passed the Council unanimously, became law without the mayor’s signature.
A Mamdani veto could have triggered a Council override.
Instead, his administration filed a lawsuit in Manhattan state Supreme Court last week, claiming the law is invalid.
The action is a sharp reversal for the mayor — compared to his campaign promises.
During his successful run for mayor last year, Mamdani promised to approve legislation to boost pay for paras while appearing at a press conference where he accepted the UFT’s backing.
But the Mamdani suit accuses the new bonus legislation of ignoring “nearly sixty years of well-established collective bargaining process under the Taylor Law — which requires that public employers and unions negotiate in good faith on mandatory subjects of bargaining, such as compensation.”
Council Speaker Julie Menin (D-Manhattan) defended the law in response to the lawsuit.
“Every member of the Council, in a unanimous and bipartisan vote, supported the RESPECT Check Act because it is unacceptable that paraprofessionals who support some of our highest-need students are earning as little as $32,000 a year,” she said in a joint statement with Councilwoman Carma De La Rosa (D-Manhattan.
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