AFT Massachusetts
The American Federation of Teachers – Massachusetts (AFT Massachusetts) is the state-level affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), a member union of the AFL-CIO. 1 It has promoted left-of-center policies through its “educational equity and workplace justice agenda” that are aligned state and national policy advocacy proposals supported by local and national Democratic Party platforms. 1 2
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AFT Massachusetts is the smaller of the state’s two major teachers’ unions, with roughly 25,000 members compared to the National Education Association-affiliated Massachusetts Teachers Association’s 117,000 members. 3
Jessica Tang is the president of AFT Massachusetts, as well as the president of the Boston Teachers Union and a vice president of the national AFT. 4
Boston “Excess Pool”
In 2017, with Jessica Tang as its president, the 6,500-member Boston Teachers Union reached a contract deal with the City of Boston, which operates the Boston Public Schools. An editorial in the Boston Globe called the contract a “one-sided victory for the teachers” and a “bad deal for Boston students.” 5
The school district had attempted to eliminate what was known as the “excess pool” of tenured teachers for whom there were no lead teaching jobs available, or whom principals declined to place in charge of a classroom. 5 6 At the time of the contract’s signing, 87 teachers were being paid for serving as assistants to other teachers or in “other suitable professional capacities” while being paid their full teacher’s salary. 5
In 2019, the schools admitted to having paid $3.6 million between 2013 and 2018 to reach voluntary severance agreements with 63 Boston Teachers Union members in the excess pool. 6
In the next contract between the BTU and Boston Public Schools, teachers in the excess pool were guaranteed interviews for open positions. Tang said that some teachers would “apply to 20 or 30 positions, and they don’t get an interview,” and blamed this on cost or age discrimination factors rather than potential issues with the teachers themselves. 7
In that same contract, the union and schools also agreed to add a full-time nurse represented by AFT Massachusetts to every public school in Boston, as well as hire 23 new mental health counselors. 7
Political Activism
AFT Massachusetts operates the American Federation of Teachers MA Political Action Committee. 8 The PAC reported just $6,750 in expenditures to state campaign finance regulators in 2024 and no expenditures at all in 2022 or 2023. As of the end of 2024, the PAC had $62,043.39 of cash on hand. 8
In 2016, the union led a “Save Our Schools/No on 2” campaign that opposed a ballot measure which would have created up to 12 new charter schools in the state. 9 10 The measure was defeated by a 62-38% margin. 9
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Employee Compensation
- Number of Employees: 26