City Council members are urging Mayor Zohran Mamdani to abandon a lawsuit blocking $10,000 payments for paraprofessionals, saying they would withdraw the measure if the mayor returns to the bargaining table and commits city funding to the workers.
The City Council and Speaker Julie Menin filed a response Thursday in Manhattan Supreme Court opposing Mamdani’s Aug. 19 lawsuit and arguing that the case should be dismissed.
“We did not want to have to pass this bill,” Menin said of Local Law 129, which would provide emergency “workforce stabilization” payments to teaching assistants whose starting salary is currently $32,000.
The Democrat-led council unanimously approved Local Law 129 in July, outside the regular collective bargaining process with organized labor. Council members said they acted in response to roughly 1,700 vacant paraprofessional positions across New York City.
“We always wanted the administration to collectively bargain this or put it in the budget, but that didn’t happen, so we had to act, and that’s why we passed our bill,” Menin said Thursday at a rally on the steps of City Hall.
The Mamdani administration sued to block the measure just hours after it passed, arguing that it violated Taylor’s Law. The New York statute gives public-sector employees the right to organize and negotiate collectively with their employers.
“We will not allow the political process to replace the collective bargaining table,” Mamdani said when the lawsuit was filed.
Critics have warned that the law could establish a troubling precedent by weakening labor negotiations and allowing union members to seek additional concessions after a contract has already been signed.
Menin, joined Thursday by fellow council members and paraprofessionals, rejected that argument. She said the legislation does not bypass negotiations between the teachers union and the Department of Education, while accusing the administration of failing to move the bargaining process forward in the first place.
“Our bill goes away if the administration collectively bargains this,” Menin said.
“So if the administration collectively bargains and does the right thing and pays the paraprofessionals what they deserve, our bill goes away, and nothing would make us happier than that.”
Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, echoed Menin’s position. The union represents nearly 90,000 New York City public school teachers and 25,000 paraprofessionals. Mulgrew said the UFT was working to advance negotiations.
“The mayor made a promise. He promised the paraprofessionals that we would fix this, we would get this done. We tried to do it. We are continuing to try to do it…with collective bargaining,” he said.
“But it’s the city and its agencies who created this problem.”
Mamdani told The Post in a statement that his administration was “negotiating in good faith to address the inequity permanently.” He also pointed to his “positive working relationship with Mulgrew,” whom he joined to celebrate the first day of school on Staten Island last week.
“As we work towards a resolution to the litigation and to protect collective bargaining, the City will continue working with UFT and all our labor partners to make meaningful investments in the workers who keep our city running,” said Matt Rauschenbach, a spokesperson for the mayor.
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