A leading voice within the business community for labor law reform that protects working families with supplemental life insurance.

In Partnership With:  OPEIU

A leading voice in the business community to support and protect working families

A leading insurance company in North America with a fully unionized workforce, American Income Life sets a high bar for respecting workers’ rights. Selling affordable supplemental life insurance for working families, the company also helps promote public policy that protects workers.

Respecting its employees’ choice to organize with the Office and Professional Employees International Union through majority sign-up over 40 years ago, the insurer and its workers see the rewards of an all-union staff. Its workforce earns fair wages, health insurance, and a defined pension benefit. However, the company’s “I Care” philosophy includes a unique system of collaboration that ensures high employee retention and satisfaction.

Unlike other insurance providers, where agents must find their own sales leads, the company’s marketing division generates leads, helping agents focus more on selling policies and less on researching clients. Recently, staff collaborated to design a new presentation that agents can use to market policies more efficiently. This partnership among coworkers to find innovative ways to increase sales enables everyone to have a part in the company’s success.

As Roger Smith, President and CEO of American Income Life believes, “When you treat your employees right, it increases productivity. It’s a great business model. Other companies have tried to mirror what we do and they just fail because they don’t have the culture behind it.” In fact, A.M Best, one of the oldest insurance rating companies in the United States, gave American Income Life a superior A+ rating for profitability in 2008.

The company has a philanthropic commitment to impact issues affecting working families. In 2008, Smith received the America’s Agenda “Health Care Heroes” award for speaking out as a business leader for healthcare reform. Additionally, the company supports the Employee Free Choice Act, viewing it as crucial to the future of America’s middle class. Smith has lobbied, written op-eds, run advertising, and launched a coalition of employers who support the legislation, Business Leaders for a Fair Economy. The company’s agents across the nation even recruited 11,000 new supporters of the bill.

“We believe the Employee Free Choice Act is a smart, fair and good public policy because it protects workers’ freedom to form unions,” explains Smith. “I challenge other responsible business leaders to support this landmark legislation. What is good for workers is good for business.”

Through its leadership and dedicated staff, American Income Life embodies this sentiment through the example it sets for others.