OPEIU Contributes to NAPAA Legal Fund Supporting Agent's Lawsuit Against Allstate

NEW YORK, Nov. 16, 2011  /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU), AFL-CIO is helping the National Association of Professional Allstate Agents (NAPAA) fight back against Allstate's efforts to terminate profitable, long-standing agents who don't meet the company's arbitrary 'Expected Results.'

OPEIU, with which NAPAA affiliated in September 2011, has pledged to match dollar for dollar individual agent contributions supporting the effort, up to $25,000. New Jersey Allstate agent Mario DeLuca, a 42-year company veteran who amassed scores of company awards and honors during his career, soon became the face of the lawsuit after he was notified that his contract would be terminated.  Additionally, the fate of other New Jersey agents under threat of termination hinges on the outcome of the case.

"Allstate is terminating an unprecedented number of agents for failing to meet its arbitrary performance goals," said NAPAA Executive Director Jim Fish.  "There is obviously something wrong when twenty to thirty percent of the agency force can't achieve these company-imposed quotas, especially when they realize their careers are at stake."

After decades of happily taking the profits that its agents generated, and terminating agents only for compliance issues or egregious conduct, Allstate has upped the ante by demanding more and more production from its agents in recent years. As more agents fell behind, the company began firing them in ever-increasing numbers. While no one outside the company knows how many have been fired, NAPAA believes it could be 3,000 or more under CEO Tom Wilson's leadership.

"Mario DeLuca could stand in the shoes of almost any agent," Fish continued.  "His loss ratio is 44 percent, and his retention is at 92 percent.  Yet he is being terminated for allegedly failing to sell a few thousand dollars worth of life insurance and for not sufficiently stemming Allstate's protracted slide in auto insurance."

The lawsuit is designed to subject Allstate to New Jersey's demanding franchise laws – which prevent termination of 'franchise' without good cause and that prohibit 'unreasonable standards of performance' – as well as to scrutinize, and hopefully reform, the company's unreasonable 'Expected Results' quotas.

The lawsuit is now in the critical discovery stage and DeLuca's attorneys' have obtained thousands of pages of documents from Allstate New Jersey that show that the story of Allstate's 'Expected Results' differs greatly from the one told to agents.  

ABOUT NAPAA
Based in Gulfport, Mississippi, NAPAA is a non-profit organization whose members are predominantly insurance agents under contract with Allstate. In addition to offering a variety of benefits and services, NAPAA further serves its members by acting on their behalf and speaking with a distinct and unfettered voice on a wide range of issues. To contact NAPAA, please visit its Website at www.napaausa.org or call (877) 269-3474.

ABOUT OPEIU
The Office and Professional Employees International Union represents more than 125,000 members in the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada. OPEIU represents employees and independent contractors in banking, insurance, higher education, shipping, hospitals, medical clinics, utilities, transportation, hotels, administrative offices and more.

Professional organizations and Guilds affiliated with OPEIU are a diverse group that includes physicians, pharmacists, chiropractors, appraisers, podiatrists, clinical social workers, hypnotists, teachers and helicopter pilots.

SOURCE Office and Professional Employees International Union, AFL-CIO (OPEIU)

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