Since 1968, the Association has been the leading voice on all issues affecting public retirees, most notably their pension and healthcare benefits. With over 52,000 members from all walks of public employment, it ranks as one of the largest and strongest grassroots lobbying organizations in the state.
With its strength in numbers, the Association has achieved a remarkable history of legislative accomplishment. Most recently, its aggressive lobbying efforts resulted in the passage of landmark legislation, that allows local retirement systems to enhance cost-of-living benefits, and increases pensions for certain widows.
As an advocacy group, the Association has long recognized the basic need for direct political activism. Its guiding principle is simple: stand with and support those candidates for elective office who embrace public retirees and our goals.
Toward that end, it has promoted and developed one of the most successful political action committees or PACs, known officially as the Retired Public Employees PAC. This committee’s continued prominence, among statewide PACs, is due exclusively to those members, who are keenly interested in politics and want to remain involved in the process by voluntarily making modest contributions to it.
In order to reach, educate and energize its members, the Association utilizes a variety of means. As its centerpiece, the Association publishes The Voice of the Retired Public Employee, a bi-monthly newsletter with a circulation of over 75,000. In addition to its comprehensive website, toll-free hotline, direct mail and blast-email capabilities, the Association holds more than a dozen well attended membership meetings each year.
Since its inception, the Association has been recognized for its hands-on service to members who need assistance in resolving retirement and insurance problems. It has also become an important information resource for public policy officials on retirement related issues.
Above all, the Association prides itself in not only being the premier advocacy group for all retired Massachusetts public employees, but a multi-faceted service organization for its members and the retirement community.