Insurance Workers of America explained

The Insurance Workers of America (IWA) was a labor union representing workers in the insurance industry, in the United States.

The union was founded be the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) on May 1, 1950, as the Insurance and Allied Workers' Organizing Committee.^[1] It was intended as a replacement for the United Office and Professional Workers of America, which had recently been expelled from the CIO, and 90% of the members of which worked in the insurance industry. It undertook a series of strikes, and as a result, in 1951 won the right to represent 6,000 workers at John Hancock Financial and Metropolitan Life Insurance. However, it was severely challenged by the rival Insurance Agents' International Union (IAIU), to which it lost 9,000 Prudential Financial workers.^[2]

The union affiliated to the new AFL-CIO in 1955, and by 1957, it had 13,000 members.^[3] On May 18, 1959, it merged with the IAIU, to form the Insurance Workers' International Union.^[4]

Presidents

1950: Allan Haywood^[5]

1952: Richard T. Leonard

1955: William Gillen

Notes and References

1. Web site: Inactive Organizations . UMD Labor Collections . University of Maryland . 18 April 2022.
2. Book: Brenner . Aaron . Day . Benjamin . Ness . Immanuel . The Encyclopedia of Strikes in American History . 2015 . Taylor & Francis . 9781317457077.
3. Book: Directory of National and International Labor Unions in the United States . 1957 . United States Department of Labor . Washington, D.C. . 18 April 2022.
4. Book: Directory of National Unions and Employee Associations . 1959 . United States Department of Labor . Washington DC.
5. Web site: Insurance Workers of America Records . Cornell University Library . Cornell University . 21 October 2022.