Nationwide Insurance Companies, 1956

Administrative records of the Insurance Workers of America include minutes of the General Executive Board meetings (1953-1957), president's reports (1954-1957), vice-president's reports (1955- 1957), and secretary-treasurer's reports (1954-1957); reports of the Research and Education Department (1955), reports of the Merger Committee (1957), and reports of organizing activities (1953-1955).

Discussion of organizing activities dominates the minutes and officers' reports throughout the 1953-1957 period. Penetration of Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, especially in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, and expansion of the union's John Hancock base, are given primary attention.

Correspondence in the records is of the union's executive officers, President Kenneth Odell, Vice-President Simon Helfgott and Secretary-Treasurer John Brisbane, primarily with representatives of the insurance companies regarding collective bargaining negotiations and efforts to set up grievance procedures within the companies. Corporate correspondents include Atlanta Life Insurance Company, Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company, Home Life Insurance Company, John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, Monumental Life Insurance Company of Michigan and Ohio, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, United Mutual Life Insurance Company, and Western and Southern Life Insurance Company (1951-1957).

In addition to correspondence with employers, national union officials also corresponded with local union officials in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Boston, New York, and Danbury, Ct. (1954-1957). The union's organizing drives and local negotiating efforts are documented in this correspondence and in the reports of the union's organizers, which are also included.

Despite evidence of extensive anti-union activity, especially on the part of the Metropolitan management, which repeatedly refused to bargain over changes in the conditions of employment, job actions among organized agents appear rare, with grievances settled through negotiation, arbitration or similar means. Of significance was the 119-day Home Life Insurance Company Strike, mentioned in the minutes and president's report of 1956 and in form letters that year between the secretary- treasurer and union locals. This strike was hailed as the longest and most successful in the history of the industry. Correspondence and newsletters of 1955 also refer to a strike at Boston Mutual.

Legislative activity, as reflected in the minutes of 1953-1957, and 1955 newsletters, focuses primarily on efforts to change provisions in the New York State Insurance Law limiting agents' compensation. These efforts extended nationally to attempts to induce other state legislatures to pass resolutions condemning the New York law.

In the 1955 minutes and newsletters, savings bank life insurance in Pennsylvania and New Jersey emerges as an issue of concern. An undated report, "The Case Against Savings Bank Life Insurance," outlines the IWA's opposition to the measure and also illustrates a degree of harmony between the CIO union and its American Federation of Labor counterpart. The report was prepared by the IWA "in cooperation with the Insurance Agents International Union, AFL."