Teachers Of NYC Fan Page: Covid-19 Edition

08/11/2026

This is what real organizing looks like.

08/11/2026

🚨 TRS MADE THE MISTAKE. RETIRED PARAS ARE PAYING THE PRICE.

Imagine retiring after decades of serving NYC schoolchildren. You’re injured on the job. You rely on the pension TRS itself calculated for you.

Then, years later, you’re told: We made a mistake.

Your pension is slashed roughly in half — and you may owe tens of thousands of dollars back.

That’s the nightmare facing 183 retired NYC paraprofessionals.

On this week’s Talk Out of School, we hear directly from retired paras Anthony Delgardio and Edith Housni about what this means when the numbers on a pension statement become groceries, housing, healthcare and basic survival.

We’re joined by Marianne Pizzitola of the NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees and Arthur Goldstein, vice chair of the UFT Retired Teachers Chapter, to ask:

How did this happen? Who is responsible? Where is the union? And what needs to happen NOW to make these retirees whole?

This is more than a pension calculation.

Workers should not have their lives turned upside down because the retirement system made a mistake.

🎧 Listen, share, and help get their stories heard:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/talk-out-of-school/id1490313171?i=1000782072767

Podcast Episode · Talk Out of School · August 9 · 56m

08/09/2026

🚨 TRS MADE THE MISTAKE. RETIRED PARAS ARE PAYING THE PRICE.

183 retired NYC paraprofessionals had disability pensions slashed roughly in HALF — after TRS says it got the calculations wrong.

These aren’t numbers. These are people who spent their lives serving NYC schoolchildren.

This Sunday, retired paras Anthony Delgardio & Edith Housni tell their stories — joined by Marianne Pizzitola & Arthur Goldstein.

Who’s responsible? Who’s going to fix it? And where are the UFT and TRS?

📻 Talk Out of School | WBAI 99.5 FM
🗓 Sunday | 7 PM

Listen live at: wbai.org

A pension system’s mistake should not become a retiree’s catastrophe.

Will be available as a podcast after the live broadcast.

08/04/2026

🚨 183 RETIRED PARAS NEED US TO STAND UP FOR THEM.

They were injured on the job serving NYC’s children. They retired and relied on pension benefits calculated by TRS — in some cases for more than a decade.

Now TRS has cut their pension checks by roughly HALF and is seeking repayment of alleged overpayments going back years.

And here’s the part that should make every UFT member and retiree angry:

TRS admits the error was theirs.

These retirees didn’t calculate their pensions. TRS did.

They planned their retirements around the benefits they were told they had earned. Now 183 disabled retired paraprofessionals are being asked to bear the consequences.

That is not respect.

We are calling on UFT leadership to stand publicly with these retirees — and on TRS to stop the cuts and collection efforts while this is fully reviewed.

✊ Retired paras deserve respect.

📝 SIGN THE PETITION. SHARE IT. MAKE SOME NOISE.

http://fixretireebenefits.org/campaigns/parapetition

Every signature sends the message directly to union leadership.

👉 SIGN THE PETITION — http://fixretireebenefits.org/campaigns/parapetition

If we allow this to happen to 183 retirees today, what does that say about the retirement security of every member tomorrow?

08/04/2026

UFT and AFT leadership must act now to protect 183 disabled paraprofessional retirees whose pension benefits have been slashed in half — for an error TRS itself admits making.

Tell them to act. Tell TRS to stop this until there is a full review. We must lobby for legislative changes!

UFT and AFT leadership must act now to protect 183 disabled paraprofessional retirees whose pension benefits have been slashed in half — for an error TRS itself admits making.

07/19/2026

Movements don’t start with press releases.

They start with members refusing to accept poverty wages.

The fight for para pay wasn’t born in union headquarters—it grew from rank-and-file organizing that made ignoring paraprofessionals politically impossible.

That’s the story behind today’s RESPECT Check.

Read the backstory here: https://thewire.educators.nyc/p/the-respect-check-passes-a-temporary

How rank-and-file pressure pushed paraprofessional pay from a union fight to a City Hall vote—and why the legislation remains temporary, non-pensionable and legally unsettled.

07/16/2026

07/11/2026

How Respect Became Temporary: The UFT Respect Check Rewrite

Last year, paraprofessionals were told the RESPECT Check would be built around a permanent Para Pay Index—a separate annual payment designed to begin closing the pay gap created by decades of pattern bargaining.

Today?

That promise has changed.

📌 The Para Pay Index is gone.

📌 The permanent recurring concept is gone.

📌 The latest amended bill is limited to the 2026–27 school year, with four installment payments and no automatic mechanism for continuing beyond that school year.

Does that mean paraprofessionals shouldn’t support the bill?

Absolutely not.

Every paraprofessional deserves every dollar they can get in this current affordability crisis.

But members also deserve honesty about how the proposal evolved—from what was originally presented to what is now before the City Council.

This isn’t about opposing the bill.

It’s about asking a simple question:

When did a permanent solution become a temporary patch?

What’s the more permanent solution? And how can it include all paras in its creation — not more top down decision-making?

We compared the original UFT FAQs, every version of the legislation, and the latest amended bill.

The timeline tells a story every paraprofessional should see before the Council votes.

👇 Read, judge the facts for yourself, and share.

How the UFT sold a permanent para pay index that would seek to offset pattern bargaining—and ended up with a temporary one-year payment. And only if it passes or survives legal challenges at all.

06/28/2026

🚨 TONIGHT AT 7 PM: UFT RETIREES—THIS IS YOUR MOMENT. 🚨

For too long, decisions have been made about retirees instead of with retirees.

Tonight, FRB is changing that.

Join the Fix Retiree Benefits Organizing Town Hall as we reveal the first-ever Members First Survey Results—your priorities, your concerns, and your vision for the future of the UFT Retired Teachers Chapter.

You’ll also learn how you can:
✅ Help shape our 2027 platform
✅ Join organizing work groups
✅ Protect retiree healthcare and pensions
✅ Build a stronger, more transparent union
✅ Get active—even if you’re still a working UFT member

Whether you’ve already registered or are deciding at the last minute, there’s still time to join the town hall.

🗓 Tonight – Sunday, June 28
🕖 7:00 PM (ET)
💻 Register: https://tinyurl.com/frbzoom

If you believe retirees deserve a real voice… if you believe members should come before establishment politics… if you’re ready to help build something new, member-driven …

Be in the room tonight. No more decisions about us, WITHOUT US!

Please LIKE, SHARE, and TAG a fellow UFT retiree or active member. Every share helps us reach another educator who wants to be part of this movement.



https://fixretireebenefitsuft.substack.com/p/tonights-the-night-join-the-fix-retiree

Hundreds have registered already! There's still time and space to register.

05/12/2026

Tomorrow is May 13. TRS Election Day.
Your pension. Your vote. Your voice.

Politicians like Hochul, Mamdani, Menin and City Council are openly proposing pension “re-amortization” — and even considering pension obligation bonds to create short-term budget relief — shifting costs and risk into the future.

What happens when the gambles don’t pay off or when the increased bills with interest come due?

We don’t need rubber stamps for Mulgrew, Mamdani, Hochul or anyone.
We need independent oversight and accountability.

That’s why educators across the city are voting for David Kazansky for TRS Trustee.

✅ 9 years of TRS experience
✅ Independent, experienced and Members First
✅ Will ask questions when others stay silent because of their caucus and party oaths
✅ Focused on protecting OUR retirement security — not political talking points or political agendas.

Don’t sit this one out.
A low-turnout election is exactly how insiders keep control.

Vote DAVID KAZANSKY for TRS TRUSTEE on MAY 13.

Because our pensions are not a political piggy bank.

Why does it always fall on the middle and working class?!

https://thewire.educators.nyc/p/dont-let-them-gamble-with-our-pensions

The fight over pension “restructuring” is really a fight over who controls TRS: members or political insiders. Vote for accountability & checks on the political machine - Vote for Kazansky for TRS