马萨诸塞州教师工会首次选举有色人种为主席 美籍华人杰西卡·唐被任命为马萨诸塞州美国教师联合会领导者
【中美创新时报2024 年 5 月 6 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）马萨诸塞州美国教师联合会周六一致投票选举杰西卡·唐 (Jessica Tang)为主席，使她成为代表 25,000 名教育工作者和其他工人的工会领导的第一位有色人种人士。《波士顿环球报》记者劳拉·克里马尔迪（Laura Crimaldi ）对此作了下述报道。
该组织发言人表示，唐是美籍华人，是该职位唯一被提名的候选人。在多切斯特举行的工会年度全州大会上，成员们在全体投票中选举了她。
波士顿教师工会现任主席唐在接受电话采访时表示，她的使命是确保全州工会成员有机会从事自己的工作，引起对工人观点的关注，并“与我们的社区盟友合作”建立权力。”
“我确实相信，当工会成员聚集在一起并组织起来时，我们就能改善我们的社区，”她说。
AFT-MA 在波士顿、劳伦斯、洛厄尔、林恩、塞勒姆和切尔西等地区都有成员，是两个全州教育工会中规模较小的一个。马萨诸塞州教师协会隶属于国家教育协会，其规模是其四倍多，几乎在全州每个地区都有 117,000 名会员。
尽管这两个组织经常合作，但 AFT 基本上没有参与近年来袭击马萨诸塞州的教师罢工浪潮，但提供了支持。
唐说，她正在承担新的角色，因为面临预算限制的当地公立学区削减了工会成员的职位。
“我们不想看到裁员，尤其是当我们一开始就没有足够的人员配备时，”她说。“削减不是答案。”
她说，她还担心国家对中小学教育委员会认为“长期表现不佳”的公立学校的控制。唐说，劳伦斯公立学校于 2011 年被置于国家破产管理之下，波士顿的两所小学也由破产管理人管理。
2017年，唐成为第一位有色人种和第一位公开的酷儿当选BTU主席；她说她计划在下个月学年结束时辞职。
“即使当我开始担任教师时，我也有同样的目标，那就是如何帮助改善机会和机会，特别是对历史上最边缘化的社区？”唐说。“继续激励我的是这样一种信念，即我们可以做得更好，马萨诸塞州可以成为包容性社区的典范，让学生和家庭能够蓬勃发展。”
根据 BTU 章程，副总裁埃里克·伯格 (Erik Berg) 将担任总裁，直至下次选举（定于 2025 年 6 月举行）。该工会代表 10,000 多名在职和退休教育工作者以及波士顿公立学校，于 2 月份开始就新合同进行谈判。
伯格表示，BTU 将“继续朝着杰西卡领导下的相同方向前进”。
唐接替了贝丝·康托斯 (Beth Kontos)，贝丝·康托斯是塞勒姆的一名高中社会研究老师，曾领导马萨诸塞州 AFT 六年。
贝丝·康托斯 (Beth Kontos) 于周六结束了马萨诸塞州美国教师联合会主席的六年任期。
康托斯在 AFT-MA 发布的一份声明中表示：“我们作为一个工会大家庭团结起来，克服了巨大的挑战并赢得了令人难以置信的胜利。”
她引用了立法机关 2019 年对公立学校经费的全面改革，该改革纠正了预算公式，该公式因不准确地预测学校成本而每年少收学区约 10 亿美元。康托斯表示，她任期内的另一个里程碑是 2022 年公平份额修正案的通过，该修正案规定对超过 100 万美元的收入额外征收 4 个百分点的税，以筹集教育和交通资金。
她还帮助当地分支机构度过了这场大流行——倡导更好的空气流通、疫苗和推迟学校建筑的重新开放。
“我对我们共同赢得的胜利感到非常自豪，我相信我们将在杰西卡·唐的领导下继续取得成功，”康托斯说。
康托斯此前告诉《波士顿环球报》，她决定不竞选连任，以便将更多时间花在即将担任新祖母的角色上，并倡导更节能的学校和更公平的学校经费。
在其他方面，与会代表一致选举布兰特·邓肯 (Brant Duncan) 担任 AFT-MA 的秘书和财务主管。
本报告使用了《波士顿环球报》之前报道的材料。
题图：周六，杰西卡·唐（Jessica Tang）全票当选美国马萨诸塞州教师联合会主席。MATTHEW J. LEE/GLOBE STAFF
附原英文报道：
Mass. teachers union elects person of color as president for the first time
Jessica Tang tapped to lead the American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts
By Laura Crimaldi Globe Staff,Updated May 4, 2024
The American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts elected Jessica Tang as president in a unanimous vote Saturday, making her the first person of color to lead the union representing 25,000 educators and other workers.
Tang, who is Chinese American, was the only candidate nominated for the position, a spokesperson for the organization said. Members elected her during a floor vote at the union’s annual statewide convention in Dorchester.
In a phone interview, Tang, the current president of the Boston Teachers Union, said her mission is to ensure union members statewide have opportunities to pursue their work, bring attention to workers’ perspectives, and build power “in partnership with our community allies.”
“I do truly believe that when union members come together and organize together, that’s how we’re able to improve our communities,” she said.
The AFT-MA has members in such districts as Boston, Lawrence, Lowell, Lynn, Salem, and Chelsea and is the smaller of the two statewide educator unions. The Massachusetts Teachers Association, which belongs to the National Education Association, is more than four times as large with 117,000 members in almost every district across the state.
Although the two organizations often work together, the AFT has been largely absent from the wave of teacher strikes that has hit Massachusetts in recent years, but has offered support.
Tang said she’s assuming her new role as local public school districts facing budget constraints cut positions held by union members.
“We don’t want to see layoffs, especially when we didn’t have enough staffing in the first place,” she said. “Cutting is not the answer.”
She said she’s also concerned about state control of public schools deemed “chronically underperforming” by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. Lawrence Public Schools were placed in state receivership in 2011, and two elementary schools in Boston are run by receivers, Tang said.
In 2017, Tang became the first person of color and first openly queer person elected president of the BTU; she said she plans to resign when the academic year ends next month.
“Even when I started out as a teacher, I had the same goal, which is how do I help to improve access and opportunity, particularly to communities that historically have been the most marginalized?” Tang said. “What continues to drive me is this belief that we can do better and Massachusetts can be a model for an inclusive community where students and families can thrive.”
Under BTU’s bylaws, vice president Erik Berg will serve as president until the next election, which is scheduled for June 2025. The union, which represents more than 10,000 active and retired educators and Boston Public Schools, entered negotiations for a new contract in February.
Berg said BTU will “continue to move in the same direction that it has under Jessica’s leadership.”
Tang succeeds Beth Kontos, a high school social studies teacher in Salem who led AFT Massachusetts for six years.
Beth Kontos ended a six-year run as president of American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts on Saturday.
“We’ve overcome enormous challenges and won incredible victories by organizing together as one union family,” Kontos said in a statement released by AFT-MA.
She cited the Legislature’s 2019 overhaul of public school funding, which rectified a budget formula that had been shortchanging districts by about $1 billion a year by inaccurately projecting school costs. Kontos said another milestone of her tenure was the passage in 2022 of the Fair Share Amendment, which established an extra 4 percentage point tax on incomes over $1 million to raise money for education and transportation.
She also helped local affiliates through the pandemic — advocating for better air ventilation, vaccines, and a delayed reopening of school buildings.
“I’m immensely proud of the victories we’ve won together, and I’m confident that we will continue to succeed under Jessica Tang’s leadership,” Kontos said.
Kontos previously told the Globe she decided against running for reelection to devote more time to her upcoming role as a new grandmother and to advocate for more energy-efficient schools and more equitable school funding.
In other business, delegates at the convention unanimously reelected Brant Duncan as AFT-MA’s secretary and treasurer.
Material from prior Globe stories was used in this report.
