Allstate Agents Association Hopes Affiliating With OPEIU Will Encourage More Agents To Join Them

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/Channels/Story.aspx?ID=1524761

8/18/2011

By Doug Cunningham

When the National Association of Professional Allstate Agents formalizes it's affiliation with OPEIU, the agent's association Executive Director Jim Fish hopes it will lead to more Allstate agents joining the association. Fish says Allstate Agents were forcibly switched from employee into independent contractor status by Allstate in 2000. Since then conditions for the agents have gotten worse. They decided to join OPEIU to improve things on several fronts.

: "The company controls everything they do practically and they are firing agents at a record number for missing quotas and are also looking to reduce compensation by 20 percent."

Fish says OPEIU gives his agents more power to get improvements in their relationship with Allstate.

: "The financial muscle of the OPEIU is going to help us in legislative efforts, lobbying efforts. Plus I believe it will motivate agents to join our group and of course with that comes strength in numbers."