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. It was intended as a replacement for the

United Office and Professional Workers of America The United Office and Professional Workers of America (UOPWA) (1937–1950) was a CIO-affiliated union and one of the white-collar unions formed by the CPUSA-breakaway party of Lovestoneites. History Formation The UOPWA of private sector c ...

, 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 John Hancock Life Insurance Company, U.S.A. is a Boston-based insurance company. Established April 21, 1862, it was named in honor of John Hancock, a prominent American Patriot. In 2004, John Hancock was acquired by the Canadian multinational li ...

and

Metropolitan Life Insurance MetLife, Inc. is the holding corporation for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MLIC), better known as MetLife, and its affiliates. MetLife is among the largest global providers of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs, wi ...

. However, it was severely challenged by the rival

Insurance Agents' International Union The Insurance Agents' International Union (IAIU) was a labor union representing agents in the insurance industry, in the United States and Canada. The union originated in 1938 as the National Federation of Insurance Agents Council of the American F ...

(IAIU), to which it lost 9,000 Prudential Financial workers. The union affiliated to the new AFL-CIO in 1955, and by 1957, it had 13,000 members. On May 18, 1959, it merged with the IAIU, to form the

Insurance Workers' International Union The Insurance Workers' International Union (IWIU) was a labor union representing workers in the insurance industry in the United States and Canada. History The union was established on May 18, 1959, when the Insurance Agents' International Union m ...

Presidents

:1950:

Allan Haywood Allan Shaw Haywood (January 9, 1888 – February 21, 1953) was an English-born American labor union leader. Born in Monk Bretton, in England, Haywood began working with his father in a local coal mine, at the age of 13, and he joined the York ...

:1952: Richard T. Leonard :1955:

William Gillen William Aloysius Gillen (1918 or 1919 – April 1, 1995) was an American labor union leader. Born in Philadelphia, Gillen served with the United States Army in Europe during World War II. After the war, he returned to Pennsylvania and worked i ...

References

{{reflist Congress of Industrial Organizations Insurance industry trade unions Trade unions established in 1951 Trade unions disestablished in 1959