The “Respect Check” Was Never About Respect

As politicians and union leaders continue to kick the can down the road, what is really going on? And what should our union be doing about it?

Last year, as a union leadership election was underway, paraprofessionals were promised something that sounded long overdue: recognition, dignity, and a financial boost in the form of a yearly “Respect Check.”

Let’s be honest about what it actually was.

An unpensionable bonus.
A recurring payment that never touched base salary.
A substitute for real raises.

Even at the time, the proposal raised serious questions. Why a bonus instead of a salary increase? Why legislation instead of a contract campaign? Why something temporary, when paraprofessionals need permanent change?

Those questions were never answered.

Instead, paraprofessionals were given a timeline. Leadership said the check would arrive by June 2025. That promise carried people through the election and past it.

Then June came and went. No legislation. No check. No results.

Summer passed. Then fall. Only after members began asking hard questions did the campaign reappear, briefly, between October and December 2025.

It failed.

The explanation shifted. The blame landed on the outgoing City Council Speaker. But even then, nothing fundamental changed. There was no pivot to a real contract campaign. No organizing effort for permanent, pensionable raises.

Just the same promise, repackaged and extended.

A “Respect Check” someday.

Now we’re in a new political landscape. A new Council Speaker. A new mayor endorsed by the union. And still nothing. The bill is stalled. It won’t make it out of committee. And at the latest committee hearing, the union wasn’t even in the room.

After a year of promises, and leadership didn’t even show up.

At a certain point, this stops looking like a plan that fell short. It starts to look like something else entirely.

The “Respect Check” functioned as a political tool: specific enough to sound real, but flexible enough to delay. A promise that could carry through an election, absorb frustration afterward, and be revived when needed.

Not a solution. An instrument.

Because a real solution would require something different. A contract campaign. Member organizing. A willingness to take risks and, if necessary, strain political relationships in order to win lasting gains.

That didn’t happen.

Instead, we saw a strategy built on managing expectations rather than meeting them.

And over time, that has consequences. Not just for paraprofessionals’ pay, but for the union itself. It breeds cynicism. It teaches members that promises are temporary, that timelines are flexible, that outcomes are optional.

That is the real damage.

Not just a missing payment, but a deepening disconnect between leadership and the people they represent.

What We Would Do Instead

We wouldn’t promise a yearly bonus and call it progress.

A recurring “Respect Check” that isn’t pensionable isn’t a solution—it’s a workaround. It keeps base salaries low, keeps long-term costs off the books, and leaves paraprofessionals in the same position year after year.

We would take a different path.

We would build a real contract campaign and an organizing campaign to match it. Aimed at winning permanent, pensionable raises for paraprofessionals in the 2027 contract.

Because the reality is this: the city is already talking about budget deficits. We haven’t had a contract that keeps up with the cost of living in decades. No one is going to hand us what we deserve out of goodwill.

And that means this can’t be a campaign built on access or relationships alone.

It has to be built on power.

Yes, the union can point to petitions, rallies, and hearings. But too often, those efforts have been performative: actions that create the appearance of movement without building the kind of sustained, organized pressure it actually takes to win.

We would do it differently.

We would start by building real structure at the school level, revive the contract action teams made up of paraprofessionals and their coworkers, trained to organize, not just mobilize. That means mapping worksites, identifying leaders, and having one-on-one conversations that bring more members into active participation.

We would set clear, escalating benchmarks, not just events, but measures of power: how many members are engaged, how many schools are organized, how visible and coordinated our actions are across the system.

We would unify the demand: permanent, pensionable pay increases for paraprofessionals as a central issue for the entire union, not something siloed or sidelined.

And we would align our political strategy with that organizing, not substitute for it. That means showing up with members, applying pressure when necessary, and being clear that endorsements are earned through results, not promises.

Most importantly, we would be honest with members about what it takes to win.

If we rely on the kindness of politicians, we will keep getting what we’ve been getting.

If we build the power of the rank and file—school by school, member by member—we give ourselves a real chance to win something different.

That’s the choice.

Not a check that comes and goes.

A salary you can build a life on—and retire on.