BTU President Jessica Tang will be the first person of color to lead the AFT Massachusetts. (Staff Photo By Nancy Lane/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)
Boston Teachers Union President Jessica Tang was unanimously elected to take over as president of Massachusetts’s American Federation of Teachers chapter over the weekend, the statewide union announced in a release, making her the first person of color to hold the role.
“It’s an honor to represent the 25,000 educators, librarians, health and public service workers from across the commonwealth who make up AFT Massachusetts,” Tang said. … “I look forward to working together with the members of AFT Massachusetts to build our power, not just as AFTMA members, but as a labor movement and in partnership with community allies.”
The AFT Massachusetts’s 200 delegates met and elected Tang at the union’s annual convention over the weekend. She will take over for Salem educator Beth Kontos, who served as the AFT-MA president since 2018.
The AFT-MA is the smaller of two statewide teachers union — behind the 117,000 member Massachusetts Teachers Association — and has members in districts in Boston, Chelsea, Lowell, Salem and more. Delegates also re-elected Brant Duncan as the union’s Secretary-Treasurer.
Tang, who started out as a middle school social studies teacher in Boston Public Schools, will be the first person of color to hold the AFT-MA presidential position. She has served as the BTU president since 2017 and was also the first person of color, first openly queer person and first woman in over thirty years to serve in the top BTU position.
In her campaign for the position, Tang cited priorities including a “strong presence” at the State House and in local communities, a “strong member-driven voice for change” in partnership with organizations like the MA Education Alliance, and helping locals “build power internally and externally.”
The incoming president is a Harvard graduate, a current Vice President of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, and co-founded Teacher Activist Group-Boston, Boston Education Justice Alliance and MA Education Justice Alliance.
Tang also serves within many boards and councils, including the United States Commission on Civil Rights Massachusetts State Advisory Council, Citizens for Public Schools, Private Industry Council and the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance.
Outgoing president Kontos cited “incredible victories” in recent years, including passage of the Student Opportunity Act and the Fair Share Amendment, protections throughout the pandemic, and strengthening local contracts.
“Jessica has been a strong partner to me over the past six years, and her deep commitment to organizing and member voice will help move our growing union forward,” Kontos said.
