Labor & Employment Law

Insurance Exec: Investing in Workers Pays Off

By admin

Roger Smith

Roger Smith, president and CEO of American Income Life Insurance and National Income Life Insurance, tells why investing in workers pays off for business.

 As a CEO of a fast-growing, profitable insurance company, I have a unique perspective on creating private-sector jobs.

My formula for success begins and ends with honoring the workers who sell and service our product. For more than 50 years, American Income Life, based in Waco, Texas, has negotiated union agreements with our employees. We have never had a layoff or a strike and have consistently grown our home office staff and agency workforce. We create jobs in every state!

So how do you create private-sector jobs during the worst financial crisis in our country? You get rid of the notion that austerity will solve the problem. First, you say, “No” to layoffs, and then you say, “No” to stagnant wages, you say, “No” to forced time off without pay, and finally you say, “No” to increased employee contributions for health and welfare benefits.

By cooperating with our union workforce, increasing the amount of money invested in recruiting, hiring, retaining and training talent, we have happier and more productive workers.

Collective bargaining is a powerful vehicle to increase corporate growth. In reality, it is productive workers who create the demand for additional jobs.

Let us honor the unsung, unappreciated and sometimes unnoticed engine behind our economy: the workers who make us grow and prosper.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on September 10, 2010 (boomark / email).