History of the New England Association of Labor Retirees

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History of NEALR:
The Roots of The New England Association

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters chartered the Teamsters Local 251 Retirees Chapter in April of 1988. In April of 1992 John A. Pernorio was elected President. One of Mr. Pernorio’s first orders of business was a pledge to transform the retiree organization form a socially oriented club to a service organization. There was growing concern that many older retirees were living on a pension less than $300 a month. It became clear to the leadership of the retiree organization that many members were forced to make a choice between food and shelter and needed medicines and health care. Declining purchasing power and escalating expenses for prescription drugs made the problem severe for many members. Unfortunately the Retiree Chapter does not have sufficient assets to pay for actual health benefits. However, in the spirit of new organizational goals, over the next several years discount dental, vision, and hearing aid services were established. These programs are essentially a network of professional offices willing to provide fee discounts ranging from 20 to 30% to retiree chapter members who could present to the office their membership card. These programs grew in popularity and resulted in a steady growth of retiree chapter membership.

Also in 1993, Mr. Pernorio contacted Dr. Joseph Boffa DDS MPH of Boston University. This initial contact in fact turned out to be the start of an ongoing working relationship between Boston University and the retiree’s chapters that continues to this day. What they discussed was the putting together of a network of dental offices in Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts that were willing to offer Teamsters retirees a fee discount. Recruiting of dental offices began in January of 1993 and by March of 1993, a dental fee discount program was announced to the Teamsters retirees. The fee discounts offered substantial savings for dental services provided by several dental providers in Rhode Island. Teamsters Retiree Chapter Local 251 (Providence) did experience membership growth indicating that providing members access to health care service discounts was a powerful inducement for enrollment. As membership increased, the ability to negotiate discounts was also enhanced. In turn pharmacy and vision discount services were also instituted. All these programs helped retiree members save up to 20 to 30% in their dental, vision, and pharmacy needs.

The New England Teamsters Coalition

In December of 1992 Several Teamsters Retiree Chapters representing all six New England States convened to form the New England Coalition of Teamsters Retirees. The goal of the new Coalition was to provide a forum for representatives of member chapters to meet and discuss common retiree issues and concerns. The New England Coalition of Teamsters Retiree Chapters, under the leadership of Mr. Pernorio, has pursued the New England Teamsters & Trucking Industry Pension Fund Trustees to improve the living standards for older retirees. They have organized petition signings, letters from pensioners, meeting with pension fund representatives and a peaceful march at the pension fund headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts that was attended by 1000 retirees from all over New England. The Coalition’s persistence has had some benefits. Given Coalition activities, some older retirees were given raises of 1% for each year they have been retired. Retirees were also given bonus Christmas checks, in some cases retirees received a double Christmas check and in other cases they received a check and one half.

For the first time what had been the initiative of one specific Teamsters Retiree Chapter had now evolved into a Coalition of Teamsters Retiree chapters with a New England base of operation. Also in 1994, the Rhode Island Alliance of AFL-CIO retiree chapters was formed and modeled after the Teamsters Retiree programs. The goal was to make services available to Teamster retirees also available to all labor union retiree chapters affiliated with the Rhode Island AFL-CIO. This was part of an effort to broaden the base of retiree advocacy.

The Founding of the New England Association

In October of 1994, the New England Association of Labor Retiree Chapters was incorporated as a non-profit organization in Rhode Island to provide all acquired benefits to all labor retirees. This was again another expansion to bring all labor union retirees under a common organizational structure throughout New England for the purpose of improving access to health and other services.

In 2000, the New England Association of Labor retirees decided to move in the direction of prevention and health promotion. It is clear there is a limit to what can be achieved by discounting the cost of services. Real improvement in the lives of retirees must also include a greater commitment to prevention and preventive behaviors. It is in the spirit of this new initiative that the New England Association of Labor Retirees, Roger Williams Medical Center and Boston University agreed to build collaborative efforts in health promotion. All three organizations have a proven track record in community service and health advocacy. It is the intent that this effort be a pilot and model of health advocacy for other community resources to follow.