We analyze kinetically constrained 0-1 spin models (KCSM) on rooted and unrooted trees of finite connectivity. We focus in particular on the class of Friedrickson-Andersen models FA-jf and on an oriented version of them. These tree models are particularly relevant in physics literature since some of them undergo an ergodicity breaking transition with the mixed first-second order character of the glass transition. Here we first identify the ergodicity regime and prove that the critical density

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... r FA-jf and OFA-jf models coincide with that of a suitable bootstrap percolation model. Next we prove for the first time positivity of the spectral gap in the whole ergodic regime via a novel argument based on martingales ideas. Finally, we discuss how this new technique can be generalized to analyze KCSM on the regular lattice Z^d.