Because Speaker Julie Menin knows better, her unabashed abuse of power in orchestrating a unanimous City Council vote for a $10,000 bonus payment for NYC’s deeply deserving school paraprofessionals would make Donald Trump proud.
Her usurping the mayor’s exclusive authority under the state Taylor Law to negotiate contracts was a naked giveaway to the powerful teachers union and United Federation of Teachers President Mike Mulgrew and sets a dangerous precedent at City Hall.
Mayor Mamdani, who as a candidate last year recklessly backed the illegal Mulgrew checks, now has taken the responsible position and immediately filed a lawsuit to void the law on Wednesday, when it took effect without his signature.
As we wrote last month, when the measure passed 49-0, an easily overridden veto would be useless, so the courts would be needed.
Paras — which some kids call “nut teachers,” as among their duties are helping students with severe allergies — start at just $32,000 and the fault for the low pay lies mostly with Mulgrew. He failed them at the bargaining table even as he succeeded in scoring an acceptable contract for the much larger (and much higher paid) cohort of teachers who dominate his union. He basically left the paras behind.
The excuse is the city Office of Labor Relations’ tradition of pattern bargaining means that all labor units must get the same percentage increase and therefore underpaid paras can never catch up without granting the teachers extra large raises also. Some creative thinking is needed here, perhaps creating a new line to move the paras into, but it must be done at the negotiations table, not by legislation.
Mulgrew and Council call the payments “Respect” checks, but their action shows no respect for the law.
The Taylor Law states that “The term ‘terms and conditions of employment’ means: salaries, wages, hours and other terms and conditions of employment provided, however, that such term shall not include any benefits provided by or to be provided by a public retirement system, or payments to a fund or insurer to provide an income for retirees, or payment to retirees or their beneficiaries. No such retirement benefits shall be negotiated pursuant to this article, and any benefits so negotiated shall be void.” So all money, unless it is for a pension, is included in what must be bargained. And that fits the Mulgrew checks.
It’s understandable why pols like Menin and all her colleagues looking for UFT political support signed up. Just listen to Mamdani from last summer, when he was getting the union’s endorsement for the general election: “I will be proud to continue to support the swift passage of Intro 1261, a piece of legislation that addresses the fact that there are too many open positions right now for paraprofessionals across this city because that job simply doesn’t pay enough.”
We even heard from Council members last month who knew that the bill was illegal and wrong, but voted for it anyway so as to not be left off the bandwagon (while assuming the courts would knock it down).
Menin is being responsive to her members, but it is Mulgrew who must be responsive to his members, the paras, and advocate for a better deal for them the legal way.
Now that the case has been filed, the courts should side with Mamdani, vacate the law and send the issue back to where it belongs, the bargaining table.