New York, NY – A new, militant group of rank-and-file unionists formed within the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) this week, called “ASAP – Alliance of Substitutes and Paraprofessionals”.

The new group, mainly consisting of members of the union’s reform caucus MORE (Movement of Rank-and-File Educators), was formed to meet a pressing need in the union. In the NYC Department of Education, substitute teachers, paraprofessionals and substitute paraprofessionals are the most neglected workers. So, union members are banding together to change this. In addition, the inequality in pay and conditions takes on a nationality, racial, and gendered character with many substitutes and most paraprofessionals being Black, Latino, immigrant and women.

While there are some groups which exist within the union to address certain specific issues that affect these education workers, such as Fix Para Pay, ASAP hopes to be the rank and file led option which really engages in militant fights on these issues.

Paraprofessionals are in the news lately, for many reasons. Most recently, Mayor Mamdani decided to sue NYC City Council for passing the Para RESPECT Check bill into law, which will provide a $10,000 bonus check for paras, which the UFT has been pushing for over the last two years. Additionally, the city’s Teacher Retirement System (TRS) attacked para retirees by demanding they make huge repayments due to a miscalculation on the part of TRS. Thankfully, this attack was partially routed by the UFT’s response via its legal team.

Meanwhile, substitutes do not have proper representation in the union. Most titles, such as teachers, social workers and paras, have their own chapters, whether based in the school or otherwise. Substitutes have no chapter of their own, which means there is no mechanism to formally represent their collective voice. Also, substitutes do not have representation on UFT’s executive board or at its delegate assembly, the union’s primary decision-making body.

Claude Copland, a member of ASAP and a substitute teacher in the Bronx, said, “As a long-term substitute teacher for almost five years now, I look forward to working with other subs and paras to help build a union that does not take any title for granted and wants to see the best outcomes for all their members.”

The Alliance of Subs and Paras vows to build the fight around these kinds of issues and will be holding related events.

ASAP is hosting a Para Town Hall, where paraprofessionals can gather to give their voice on what course of action to take with the recent lawsuit from the city against city council’s Para RESPECT Check. The event will take place over Zoom on September 16, at 6 p.m.

For more about the Alliance of Subs and Paras, follow them at: @nycsubparaalliance on Instagram.

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