New York City, NY – The Alliance of Substitutes and Paraprofessionals (ASAP), a new group of militants within the NYC United Federation of Teachers, held a “Para RESPECT Check Town Hall” over Zoom on Wednesday, September 16.

The meeting was held to hear the voices of paras, the most underpaid education workers in the city, on the new “RESPECT Check” legislation which recently became law and which led to a controversial lawsuit against NYC City Council by Mayor Mamdani’s office.

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.