New York City’s mayor is suing to block bonuses backed by the union that helped elect him.
Zohran Mamdani won the 2025 New York City mayoral race with the endorsement of the United Federation of Teachers, the city’s largest teachers’ union, representing more than 200,000 members. This summer, the City Council voted unanimously to pass the RESPECT Check Act, a bill that would give education paraprofessionals bonuses of up to $10,000. These are the teachers’ aides and instructional assistants who work with disabled students, often starting at around $33,000 a year and topping out near $56,000 after fifteen years on the job. The council vote was unanimous. Then Mamdani stepped in.
On August 19, his administration filed a lawsuit arguing the bonus bill violates the Taylor Act, the law governing collective bargaining for New York public employees. Six days later, the UFT filed a motion to intervene, placing itself on the opposite side of the litigation from the mayor it helped put into office.
As originally reported, Mamdani says he supports higher pay for paraprofessionals, but argues that the right venue is contract negotiations with his office, not legislation from the City Council. Critics see that position differently. Supporting a raise in principle while controlling the process that determines whether it ever happens is a convenient place to stand.
This is not the first campaign promise that has not survived contact with governing. Mamdani pledged free bus service during his run for mayor. The buses are still not free. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is controlled by the state, not the city, a fact that was publicly known well before any votes were cast.
The UFT is unlikely to abandon its broader political commitments over one bruising fight. Defending Education, a watchdog organization, has documented that teachers’ unions have directed more than $669 million toward left-wing causes and campaigns since 2015. One bad election cycle does not reverse that kind of institutional momentum. Union leadership will move on. The endorsements will continue. The political machinery keeps running.
The ones absorbing the real cost are the paraprofessionals themselves. They showed up every day to work with the city’s most vulnerable students. Their pay scales plateau in the mid-fifties after more than a decade of service. The City Council gave them a unanimous vote. The mayor their own union campaigned for is now in court arguing that vote should not stand.
The UFT backed Mamdani expecting a reliable ally. Instead, they are now his legal opponents over a bill that would have helped the lowest-paid workers in the school system. The bonus is frozen. The lawsuit is active. And the workers who were supposed to benefit are waiting.