I work for Fresno Unified School District in central California. I am a Para-Professional in Autism classes. Our jobs can be very demanding many teachers in these classes do next to nothing while we slave away. To make matters worse they hire certificated subs to fill in the openings where other paras have left. These certificated subs are assigned to do the same jobs as us but do nothing and are being paid 2x the amount. It’s a slap in the face. I can’t afford to pay all my bills and don’t eat some days. I’m in a situation where I can’t get a second job. When we started making a fuss we were given a toy as a show of appreciation. I threw it in the trash and said I’d rather have money. The teachers have their own chat thread where they talk about us and I can heard the terrible things they say. We’re not asking for more than them, but the pay gap between one of these teachers and myself is more than $73,000. The Union still hasn’t made progress and the teachers work against us quietly. I’m so lost.