Could Paras Take the Money and Run?

Show us the money first, Mulgrew.

All power to the paraprofessionals. There’s a new deal for them being floated, and I’m all for them getting a 10K increase. In typical Unity fashion, we haven’t got details because the actual bill doesn’t even exist yet. They want us to trust them. That has not always worked well for us.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves—despite how Unity may have presented this to paras, it’s far from a fait accompli. And again, since it doesn’t exist, no one’s even read the legislation. Furthermore, regardless of what it says, it would need to be voted on and passed.

Perhaps the handful of city council people that stood with Mulgrew are looking for higher positions in the next city council. Likely Julie Menin is looking to be the next Speaker. This could be a low risk, high reward ploy by these politicians, disgracefully, at the expense of our lowest paid members.

That said, paras are key to the education of our most needy students. They deserve 10K and more. Make no mistake—this is Unity’s direct response to a handful of paraprofessionals who decided to stand up and Fix Para Pay. Fix Para Pay is a group of brave paras who’ve had enough. They mobilized and created a small slate. Despite that, they won the election by three to one, and learned a lot.

Fix Para Pay learned, among other things, that job actions work.

They took decisive action and got results. However, it’s very sad that the action they took had to be against union leadership, which could not be bothered to help until they were painted into a political corner. Sadder still is the fact that this looks like nothing more than an elaborate campaign stunt.

FPP also learned another little-known fact—that elected UFT positions carry neither job nor salary, and that UFT jobs are virtually always doled out on the basis of caucus loyalty. I hammered Unity on this page until they finally broke down and gave Migda Rodriquez a job. Disgracefully, they ridiculed her for not coming to meetings because she needed a second job to make ends meet. Migda’s voice is now heard in the hallowed halls of 52 Broadway, (though whether or not the bosses listen is an open question).

I hear Mulgrew told the paraprofessionals he and his Very Smart People have been working on this deal for seven months. How inept would you have to be to plan something for seven months and not even have a draft of the proposal? Mulgrew continues to lie to retirees about the Medicare Advantage scheme that cost him the retiree chapter, but that’s far from the only reason to doubt him.

Before Mulgrew lost two concurrent elections, he had 450 million dollars to devote to hard to staff positions. He had the cash in hand, could have used this to fix para pay and didn’t bother. (He further didn’t bother to help the OT/PT chapter, which has been demanding parity with teachers.) According to Chalkbeat, the new plan will cost 260 million a year, little more than half of what he had at his disposal.

Did they run this by the para chapter before bringing it out? There’s no evidence of that, particularly after seven alleged months, or paraprofessional executive board members wouldn’t have been surprised by it. They certainly didn’t run it by First Vice Chair Migda Rodriguez, one of few candidates overwhelmingly chosen by the paras. Did they even run it by their Unity members?

Unity is three men in a room making decisions, and rubber stamps from Executive Board and Delegate Assembly. In this case, they couldn’t be bothered with even that.

Marie Wausnock, AKA Marie Para, who co-founded Fix Para Pay, questions Unity’s sudden turnaround:

“I don’t understand why [Mulgrew is] presenting this in a bill with some council members when he had the opportunity to fight for this in our contract negotiations,” said Marie Wausnock, a union executive board member who co-founded a slate called Fix Para Pay which largely opposes Mulgrew’s Unity caucus. She noted the pay bumps Mulgrew is pushing for would not count toward their pensions.

The 10K, should it ever materialize, isn’t pensionable. That’s is a big problem. I’m a retiree, and short of some highly unlikely state action, my pension stays pretty much the same. That said, I’m a retired teacher, and I got paid a lot more than paras did. If a thousand dollar bonus, or even a three thousand dollar bonus was not pensionable for me, it wouldn’t make a great deal of difference.

I can’t say the same for paraprofessionals, whose salaries range around 30-50K. A little means a lot. With this deal, up to 25% of paraprofessional compensation won’t be pensionable. I’m told Michael Mulgrew had some advice for paraprofessionals—he told them to go take a vacation this summer.

I’m no financial expert, but I’d have told paraprofessionals to max out their TDAs. They’re going to desperately need extra income when they retire. This salary bump wouldn’t add to their retirement income at all. If you’re Mike Mulgrew, making three times what working teachers do (and way, way more than paras), such things may not cross your mind.

This is not, in fact, a proposal to fix para pay. It’s a proposal to grant them a tenuous bonus, that could be pulled at any time. Imagine how catastrophic a sudden 25% reduction in income could be.

Paraprofessionals deserve a raise, not a tip.

How long would paraprofessionals have to work if up a good portion of their compensation were not pensionable? Retirement can be costly. You no longer get pharmacy benefits from the Welfare Fund, and it’s 150 dollars a month for pharmacy premiums, double that if you pay for your spouse. Even if you get $900 back, that’s about 3K per couple. And if you actually need pharmaceuticals, that could run you 4K per couple in co-pays.

With all those additional expenses, paras would have no part whatsoever of that 10K in retirement.

What if Unity kept moving in this direction? Could 50% not be pensionable some day? The sky’s the limit. Here’s a thought—if the city had 260 million to pay paras, why wouldn’t they simply put it into their pay? That’s how you fix para pay.

What else is problematic?

Mulgrew can present this as a slam-dunk, but it sure doesn’t look that way . Adams may not make a second term but it’s hard for me to imagine any mayor taking a different position.

Regardless of any bonus, retaining real Medicare is crucially important for paraprofessionals.

Whether or not the City Council considers this, if they’re genuinely concerned for paras, among others, they need to approve Intro 2024-1096. This will protect their insurance and prevent Unity from pushing through extra charges they can’t afford.

Of course, Unity bosses haven’t considered this at all. This is a perfect example of their values—short term distractions versus long term security.

If this were to go through, and that’s a big if, would this become a precedent? Would Unity push similar deals for other titles? The city might like deals like this, because it saves them a lot in pension payments. This is contrary to what those of us who’ve worked decades for the city have been led to expect.

As a teacher, I knew I was making 10-20K less than my suburban colleagues. I had every expectation, though, that I’d be treated better in retirement. So far, that’s been true, but let’s not forget, even as Unity pays valuable lip service to opposing Medicare Advantage, they’ve not yet lifted a finger to make that happen. Furthermore, they’re still part of an amicus brief with Mayor Adams pushing to strip us of real Medicare.

We’re a union, not a corporation. Corporations don’t worry about retirement. They pay what they pay, grant bonuses, and people fend for themselves afterward. We are union. We work for less than some people, but expect better treatment in retirement. Moving away from that, with no expectation of spectacular salary increases, doesn’t work for us.

Money can be like a narcotic. Let’s wave around some money, and members will shut up. Are we getting paid, or being bought off? The timing of this proposal stinks to high heaven. Because they lost a few elections, and because they’re poised to lose another, they’re suddenly looking to appear to take action.

Paraprofessionals joined the UFT way back in 1969. For 55 years, Unity has ignored them. Only when they rose up and kicked Unity’s asses did the bosses open their eyes. Michael Mulgrew, with very good reason, is scared paras are mad at him.

Mulgrew’s grabbing hold of whatever politicians he can ransom, and it’s all about getting him re-elected.

Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. We’re educators, and it behooves us to see the big picture. Thus, we need to look back at the last six decades, as opposed to the last six weeks.

A large, sudden, one-time payment could be problematic. Paras, given their low salaries, may live in Section 8 housing. How would immediate bonuses affect that? Would the sudden rise in income make them vulnerable to homelessness? Would it make their families ineligible for food assistance? Would 10K compensate for these potential losses?

Here’s another issue that could be thorny for us. If you’re a regular reader, you know that I see the Municipal Labor Committee (MLC), the umbrella organization for city unions, as something that’s been sorely misused. Mulgrew and Unity have set it to work diminishing our health care.

ABC will work to organize MLC to set a minimum acceptable pattern, rather than accepting whatever the city can lowball the first sucker it can find. That will be tougher with Unity in charge, because they’ve made some awful deals for our brother and sister unions.

In 2018, Michael Mulgrew was desperate to get the twin 4% raises NYPD and FDNY got under Bloomberg. To that end, he negotiated a deal that gave a billion dollars of our 1.8 billion dollar health stabilization fund back to the city. He further accepted a crap pattern going forward, including a year and a half of zeroes.

Now, he’s trying to make a sweetheart deal for us, and screw everyone else. Among everyone else are DC37 workers, who make even less than paraprofessionals. Were paras to grab a deal like this, they’d want one too.

Add to that Mulgrew’s lip service opposing the health sellout he roped DC37 and every city union into, and they may not feel so great about us. In fact, they may, justifiably, mistrust us so much that our voice in MLC could be greatly diminished.

Were this to go through, ABC leadership would be in much better shape to rebuild bridges with our brother and sister unionists. Our vision is inclusive of other unions.

Again, we have no assurance this will happen. If it did, though, like the new class size regulation, it wouldn’t be enshrined in contract. A fiscally conservative council could vote it into the nothingness from whence it came. A mayor could push to eliminate it.

Why might Mulgrew believe he can push this through? For one thing, he’s the best friend City Hall has ever had. Who in his right mind would trade 600 million a year, forever, for a three year contract that may or may not have met cost of living? Who else would bankrupt the health stabilization fund and push inferior care for those he ostensibly represents?

Our union has to be prepared to fight our contractual adversary. We can’t be the darling of the establishment and effectively represent our members. If I represented the city, I’d want to keep Mulgrew in power forever. No one else has given up more or accepted less, and no one else has presided over transforming the United Federation of Teachers from an activist force to a company union.

As far as I can tell, the city budget is set for this year. There’ll be no more money coming until after the election. There’s an old joke, and I’ll clean it up a little.

Q: How do you say, “Go screw yourself,” in (____fill in language here____)?

A: Trust me.

Hey, believe what you like. Believe in love at first sight. Believe for every drop of rain, a flower grows. Believe in the Easter Bunny, if you wish. Believe the guy below.

Given our experience, “trust me” is simply not good enough from Unity Caucus. They’ve misled us on health care, hiding pivotal pieces of contract agreements from us until after we voted on them. Where is the fine print on this deal? I haven’t seen it. No one has. They’ve announced the proposal before bothering to even write it.

And just out of curiosity, if the city council can do this, why do they tell Marianne Pizzitola and NYC Retirees they can’t legislate for us? As retirees, we don’t have collective bargaining. We just have a few union bosses bargaining away our health care, lying to us that Medicare Advantage is better, and taking us for saps.

I hope the paraprofessionals get the 10K per year. How could I hope otherwise? I support sunshine and lollipops as well. Still, when would paras get the money? How would it happen if this bill is about next year’s budget? This year’s budget is done.

In the unlikely event this thing ever went through, I’d have just one piece of advice for paraprofessionals:

Take the money and run. Run with ABC.