Long time come, but agents finally form guild to have leverage over corporate office decisions
Indie brokers might want to check out the agents at The Allstate Corp.: Getting organized isn't just the stuff of blue-collar employees anymore.
In August, about 1,200 Allstate agents, members of the National Association of Professional Allstate Agents Inc., formed a guild and affiliated with the Office and Professional Employees International Union.
The NAPAA had been fighting to get organized for years. In 2002, the National Labor Relations Board rejected the NAPAA's call to form a union, ruling that the agents couldn't organize, as they were independent contractors.
They could, however, form a guild.
As such, the group doesn't have collective-bargaining rights, but has enough leverage to fight against questionable agent terminations and other moves by the corporate office that may not be in the best interests of the sales force.
“This is a step closer to organized labor; we're trying to help the agents navigate through this mess that the company has made here,” said NAPAA executive director Jim Fish.
NAPAA latest focus is on taking aim at the independent-contractor status of its agents.
In 2002, Allstate migrated most of its agents to independent-contractor status, from employee. Even as independent contractors, the sales force was deemed “exclusive agents” and could sell only Allstate products. Based on that and other objections, NAPAA views the sales force as employees.
The switch to independent-contractor status set off a firestorm of litigation by veteran agents who claimed they were terminated or elbowed into selling their practices after failing to meet production requirements.
The biggest and most famous is called Gene Romero, et al. v. Allstate Insurance Co., et al., filed some 10 years ago — and which continues — in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Issues on the table include a company's ability to terminate an employment relationship to save on costs tied to employee benefits.
NAPAA has advocated on the part of agents in such cases, and where necessary, the OPEIU can provide legal and legislative muscle.
“You can't legally bargain, but you can have an effect as an ombudsman by criticizing actions in newspapers and at meetings,” OPEIU president Mike Goodwin said. “NAPAA is sensitive to what the agents are thinking, and that union is a way to have those thoughts articulated.”
“Agents understand that they have open access to senior leadership and Allstate is being smart about a change to compensation to reward agents who are high performers. We are independent contractors, not employees, so the vote is not an issue for Allstate or me,” said Jim Towns, Allstate agency owner and co-chair of Allstate’s Agency Executive Council.
