Sacramento, Calif. (11/10/2017) – A Nevada company with its headquarters located in California, named American Labor Alliance (ALA), has been ordered to stop selling insurance and worker’s compensation plans in California, as they are not licensed to do so. ALA challenged the initial cease and desist order, claiming they were an labor union/Entity Claiming Exemption (ECE), and therefore out of the state’s jurisdiction and authority.
The cease and desist order was upheld by Kristin Rosi, an Administrative Law Judge for the Department of Insurance. The decision was subsequently adopted by Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones as a Precedential Decision.
The American Labor Alliance is a subsidiary of the Agricultural Contracting Services Association. It is a non-profit organization whose stated purpose is to provide employment benefits to agricultural workers and their employees. They claim to be a union labor organization; however, evidence suggests otherwise.
Although ALA has a large staff of labor relations representatives, they organize with the employers they sell insurance packages to first, and only then consort with their “members”. To join, members do not have to be an employee of a company that ALA sells insurance packages to. ALA also claims that it does not represent its members, but instead their member’s representative is the member who signed them up for the program.
To try to legitimize themselves as labor representatives, they use a method called “card check”. This involves the distribution of signature cards where employers agree to use ALA as their representation.The decision found that ALA has never held an official union election, nor have they ever requested one from the state or federal government. They have never been certified by a government agency as an exclusive bargaining representative for any business.
Moreover, according to the decision, ALA’s representative collective-bargaining agreement (CBA) is only three pages long and doesn’t identify personnel or job classifications. There are no processes for grievances or arbitration. Their CBA contains no mention of union rights, specific pay periods, or hours. In addition, their CBA has only been signed by one employer that they work with. Without a signed CBA, the worker injury coverage policies are unable to be legally issued.Due to the cease and desist order being upheld against ALA, they are no longer allowed to solicit, market, sell or issue insurance policies in the State of California. This ruling by CASE Member Kristin Rosi helps protect California employers and consumers from purchasing illegitimate insurance and workers compensation plans.