The head of the powerful teachers\u2019 union in New York City has threatened \u201call-out war\u201d against Mayor Zohran Mamdani if he does not support granting hefty bonuses to teaching assistants, setting up a potential rift between the democratic socialist mayor and the influential labor leader.<\/p>\n
Mr. Mamdani had pledged on the campaign trail<\/a> that, as mayor, he would back legislation providing one-time payments of $10,000 to the aides, known as paraprofessionals. They are among the lowest-paid employees in the city\u2019s public schools, often working one-on-one with students with disabilities. <\/p>\n But after the City Council unanimously passed a bill last week giving bonuses to teaching assistants, Mr. Mamdani backpedaled, as administration officials have said that the payments would violate state labor law. <\/p>\n He has not indicated whether he intends to veto the measure, sue the City Council for passing it, or do nothing and let it lapse into law.<\/p>\n Michael Mulgrew, the president of the United Federation of Teachers,<\/a> said that he had pressed the case with Mr. Mamdani, including in a meeting on Thursday. Mr. Mulgrew, who faces his own internal political pressures<\/a>, said that he would be disappointed in the mayor if his administration opposes the bonuses or challenges them in court. <\/p>\n \u201cIf we have to go to all-out war with him over this, then we\u2019re willing to do that,\u201d Mr. Mulgrew said in an interview, adding that an escalation to that level would reveal that Mr. Mamdani \u201cis not the person we thought he was.\u201d<\/p>\n In a statement, Mr. Mamdani praised the work of paraprofessionals but said that \u201cquestions of compensation are best resolved through the collective bargaining process that respects workers and their unions.\u201d<\/p>\n New York\u2019s public school system, the largest in the United States, employs roughly 26,000 paraprofessionals, whose starting salary is about $32,000 a year. There are about 1,600 paraprofessional vacancies, the union said.<\/p>\n The legislation would cost New York City $325 million. The Citizens Budget Commission, a nonpartisan watchdog group that opposes the bill, warned<\/a> that it would set a \u201cdangerous precedent\u201d by encouraging unions to bypass the bargaining table and appeal directly to lawmakers.<\/p>\n There are already signs of that happening. Joann Ariola, a councilwoman who chairs the Committee on Fire and Emergency Management, recently cited<\/a> the potential paraprofessional bonuses in her request to raise the pay for Fire Department emergency medical technicians and paramedics<\/a>. <\/p>\n Mr. Mamdani campaigned on promises of helping working-class New Yorkers and ultimately won the backing of major labor unions, including the United Federation of Teachers, which has about 190,000 members. <\/p>\n Like other New York mayors who have confronted the realities of running a complicated city in constrained fiscal times, Mr. Mamdani has backtracked on other campaign promises, too.<\/p>\n As a candidate, he called for expanding a housing voucher entitlement program<\/a> for low-income New Yorkers, only to reverse course upon taking office. And he has not fulfilled a pledge to disband<\/a> a contentious Police Department unit that responds to protests, called the Strategic Response Group.<\/p>\n