Chants of “Para power!” and “Para strong, all day long!” could be heard from blocks away as more than 1,600 paraprofessionals and fellow UFT members came together from across the city on April 2 to call on the New York City Council to pass legislation to give paraprofessionals an annual “RESPECT check” of $10,000.

Reading scores dropped to a new low on the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress while math scores were stagnant for 8th-graders and up slightly for 4th-graders.


The National Labor Relations Board is at a standstill after President Donald Trump fired board chair Gwynne Wilcox, a Democratic appointee, leaving a total of three vacancies on the five-member panel and ensuring it does not have a quorum to conduct business.

In the latest salvo in its bid to control and reduce the size of the federal workforce, the Trump administration has decreed that union contract provisions permitting telework for federal employees are invalid because they conflict with management prerogatives.

Union leaders and representatives from the union’s private, nonprofit and Department of Education functional chapters gathered at union headquarters on Jan. 16 to kick off a new union initiative intended to showcase and amplify the work of members in the diverse titles and collective bargaining units in the UFT.