Terminated Producer Seeks To Unionize Allstate Agents

A prominent agent recently dismissed by Allstate Insurance Company has announced that he is leading an independent drive to unionize Allstate agents.

Allstate exclusive agents have no say when the company considers changing their contracts, said John F. Bryant, national board member of the National Association of Professional Allstate Agents, a Canton, Mich.-based group. “It's a one-way street,” he declared, adding that Allstate exclusive agents need “someone to look out for their interests, someone who can bargain with the company.”

According to Mr. Bryant, an agent union is the solution that would lead to favorable changes. Among other things, unionization would permit issues such as compensation, quotas and termination procedures to be negotiated by management and professional negotiators, he said. “At this time, Allstate exclusive agents have no right to negotiate,” he said. “The fate of thousands of agents is left up to senior Allstate managers, many of whom have never sold an Allstate policy.”

Mr. Bryant made the announcement through NAPAA. He also serves as legislative chair of the Coalition of Exclusive Agent Associations, a Baltimore-based organization.

As for the mechanics of Mr. Bryant's unionization effort, he reported having agents “in almost every state” working with him. He also has an informational Web site (www.agentsforfreedom.com).

Mr. Bryant said that the New York-based Office and Professional Employees International Union will be assisting in the drive. He also thinks he will be making a few “road trips around the country” to further the effort.

He said that e-mail will be his biggest and most effective tool for getting the word out to Allstate agents.

Mr. Bryant recently learned that the Northbrook, Ill.-based Allstate had terminated his contract in an abrupt fashion (see NU, April 15, page 43). On April 2, while Mr. Bryant was coping with a computer malfunction at his Hammond, La., J&B Bryant Agency office, a computer technician told him about an e-mail from Allstate stating that Mr. Bryant's contract of appointment had been terminated.

Later that day, a group of Allstate representatives accompanied by a hired security officer arrived at his office with an official termination letter, he said. The letter stated that Mr. Bryant had failed “to maintain a professional and business-like relationship” with Allstate, and that his agency had failed to meet Allstate's “business objectives.”

The Allstate representatives had Mr. Bryant's telephone and computer systems removed from the office that same day, although a company spokesperson later stated that the termination was not effective until Aug. 1.

Mr. Bryant explained that Allstate will continue paying him renewal commissions until the end of July. “They may buy my book, but then they pay out in 12 payments, which they can stop if they desire to,” he said. In the meantime, he is mulling his career options, he stated.

Allstate's termination notice came just weeks after Mr. Bryant testified before a Maryland legislative committee on why he opposes insurer use of consumer credit scores. He has similarly testified in other states. Allstate denied that Mr. Bryant's anti-credit score activities motivated the termination. Instead, the company intimated that, among other things, Mr. Bryant failed to meet company financial objectives, which he has denied.

Additionally, according to Allstate's director of media relations, Mary Alice Horstman, “maintaining a professional relationship” means that Allstate expects its agents to act in good faith in the performance of their contractual obligations, and to refrain from “any activities that damage the Allstate brand, the Allstate reputation in the marketplace, or its relationships with its customers, its agencies or its employees.”

Mr. Bryant also has been active in other areas, such as a successful drive in Louisiana to forbid insurers from imposing life and health insurance sales quotas as a condition for authority to sell property-casualty insurance.

NAPAA has specified that it is not associated with any union. But it invoked the First Amendment right to free speech while declaring that it reports to its members and Allstate agents at large on issues important to them, including unionization.

An Allstate official contacted NU and said the company wanted to submit a written response to an earlier version of this article reporting the unionization effort, originally published last week on the “NU Online News Service,” but did not get back to NU before this story went to press. For Allstate's response, see the “Hot News” section at NationalUnderwriter.com, or next week's edition.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Property & Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, April 29, 2002. Copyright 2002 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.

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Terminated Producer Seeks To Unionize Allstate Agents

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