Betty Tianti

Betty L. Tianti(1929 – 1994) was an Americantrade unionleader, the first woman in the United States to head a statelabor federation,and the first state labor commissioner inConnecticut.

Biography

Tianti was a native ofKillingly, Connecticut,graduated fromPlainfield High School,and attended theUniversity of Connecticutand theUniversity of Massachusetts.She was elected president of theAFL–CIOunion federation in Connecticut in 1985.

She started her career at the American Thread Company factory inWillimantic, Connecticutin 1956. She later became president of herlocal union,and from 1962 to 1970 was aunion organizerinNew Englandand in theSouthern United States.She became the assistant director of theTextile Workers Union of America's Committee on Political Education (COPE), which was the union's political organizing and contributing arm.

From 1970 to 1974, she was an assistant agent for the Connecticut State Board of Labor Relations, and then served as COPE director for the state AFL-CIO. She became the labor federation's secretary- treasurer in 1979.

When the AFL-CIO's Connecticut President John Driscoll retired in 1985, Tianti was elected to succeed him, making her the first woman in the United States to be elected as head of a state labor federation. In 1988, GovernorWilliam O'Neillappointed her as the state's first labor commissioner.

She was inducted into theConnecticut Women's Hall of Famein 1994,and died ofemphysemain the same year.