A picket by paraprofessionals in the New Bedford school department?

And more planned in the future?

When have we ever seen that kind of activism among working people in this city?

This is not the teachers, the police officers and firefighters, or even the laborers in the public works department.

These are demonstrations by the folks who help teachers maintain order, work one-on-one with special needs kids and sometimes even help with lesson plans.

The Facebook page of the New Bedford Paraprofessionals shows their recent picket.

Mostly women, they are the invaluable cogs that makes the machinery work in an increasingly cyber learning environment.

Most of them, however, no matter what their level of training or experience, are earning somewhere within a couple of dollars of the minimum wage.

A full-time job at Massachusetts’ current minimum wage of $13.50/hour would allow you to earn about $28,000 a year if you were working 40 hours. In New Bedford, your pay ranges from $11.11 to $15.28 at the top rate. 

If you are a single mother, try living on this amount of money. Even in New Bedford, it’s next to impossible by the time you finish paying your rent, childcare and food costs. You need to earn a lot more.

The media’s attention right now is focused on whether the national Democratic Party will be able to push through a $15/hour federal minimum wage law, increasing in increments over several years. New Bedford paras already make around that amount but it’s been a long time in Massachusetts since the federal $7.25/hour minimum was anywhere near a subsistence wage.

The city is offering the traditional incremental percentage increases but the paras are pushing for more and want the raises to be retroactive several years to the beginning of their contract. It takes so long to negotiate municipal contracts that raises are not infrequently retroactive. But this year the city is offering a $250 signing bonus instead of retroactive pay.

The $15/hour federal wage push in recent years has emboldened local minimum wage earners like the New Bedford paraprofessionals. With inflation, negotiated salary increases are simply never going to get them to the cost of living in Massachusetts.

The Facebook page of Local 2378 paraprofessionals’ union includes a red button with the word “Respect” in bold letters and what seems to be a motto: “What we do matters.”

“What we do matters.” When have we ever seen these workers stand up for themselves this way? Good for them.

Superintendent Thomas Anderson suggested reading three letters out loud on behalf of the paraprofessionals at the Feb. 8 School Committee meeting.

Jill Zanagao, the president of Local 2378 of the paraprofessionals, speaks of the two things they are bargaining for. “A safe environment and a liveable wage.”

The liveable wage is a promise to working people first made by FDR, but the country, as well as the city, has gone away from that promise for decades now. The result is a world in which unskilled workers like paras increasingly work two jobs. In essence, the 60-hour work week is back almost 90 years after the New Deal. The minimum wage has lost ground in real purchasing power since 1968.

What many don’t also realize is the danger that teachers and paraprofessionals are sometimes in from students acting out. Zangao this week talked about one paraprofessional being responsible for two or three classes at a time.

In the midst of negotiations, the union is not backing down. In what may have been the first serious criticism of Superintendent Thomas Anderson in three years, Priscilla Antonelli, the chair of the negotiation team for the paras, wasn’t satisfied with his bringing forward letters of support at the Feb. 8 School Committee.

Anderson had wanted to read out loud three brief letters supporting the paras but under pressure from Mayor Jon Mitchell -- who had not read the letters prior to the meeting -- the committee agreed to just receive them and place them on file.

Mitchell seemed to be concerned about maintaining consistency since the public comment period at School Committee meetings has been eliminated during the pandemic. Committee member Josh Amaral, however, gently pushed the committee to bring back public comment period as soon as possible.

Antonelli was unconvinced by the city’s statements that the paras are appreciated.

“You say everyone is valued here, But we don’t feel that in negotiations,” she told The Standard-Times.

Late last week, the School Department issued a press statement on behalf of Anderson that acknowledged the paraprofessionals deserve a raise and referred to five employees who are currently under the state minimum wage. (City workers are exempt from the state minimum wage law.) 

Anderson’s statement noted that the union has not agreed to an offer by the city that would bring the five workers above the minimum.

That’s true. The paraprofessionals are looking for more.

The playground at the Hayden-McFadden Elementary School in New Bedford. [ Jack Spillane ]

Anderson is certainly trying to do the right thing and the problem is bigger than his position. It’s really an issue connected to the way both local government and the private sector have paid so-called unskilled employees for several generations now. It’s an issue for mayors and school committees and businesses and the state and country at large.

The paras are not just bargaining for the handful of employees under the minimum wage, they are bargaining for all the employees who are paid in the vicinity of it. They are bargaining hard and they are bargaining visible. 

It’s not something we have seen from school workers on the first rung of the department before. But like fast-food workers and tip workers who have also found their voices in recent years, the New Bedford paraprofessionals are saying the time for paying non-livable wages is over.

As the income gap escalates year after year, we are seeing something different from these workers.

We are seeing demands.