September 5, 2004 in Business

Union leader carves out his own identity

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The secretary-treasurer of United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers & Allied Workers has a name that will be familiar to many Spokane residents. Kinsey M. Robinson has been second-in-command at the 22,000-member international labor group since 1985.

But wasn’t he …?

No, that was Kinsey M. Robinson, president or chairman for 37 years of what was then the Washington Water Power Co. His grandson says he saved the company, now Avista Corp., from the federal government. His grandson, Kinsey M. Robinson II.

The younger Robinson, who dropped the II years ago, has been involved in union affairs since the early 1970s. He was elected business manager of Spokane Roofers Local 189 in 1974, and became head of the Inland Northwest and Washington Building & Construction Trades councils before moving to the Roofers’ Washington, D.C., office.

Robinson, 58, says he did not know his grandfather, a legendary workaholic, particularly well when he was growing up, but says they came to agree on the social value of a content work force that understood the value of their jobs to the company. Avista never had a union problem while his grandfather was in charge.

“I think he was quite proud of that,” Robinson says.

Robinson says he was touchy about his name as a youth, mostly because he was constantly asked about his relationship to the Avista chairman.

“Everybody knew who my grandfather was. I mean everybody,” he says.

Robinson recalls that the elder Kinsey’s major achievement was his fight to keep WWP out of the hands of the public utility districts established in Washington to distribute electricity from federal dams in the Northwest. After more than a decade confronting not only the PUDs but his own bosses, Robinson prevailed.

“I’m proud of my grandfather,” Robinson says.

Some of the elder Robinson’s business acumen obviously came with the name. As the Roofers’ treasurer, he has managed a $1 billion defined-benefit retirement fund that is fully funded, which many of his corporate peers cannot say. He also oversees a smaller defined-payment plan and a health care plan.

“Most roofers can’t work their entire lives,” Robinson observes, explaining the care he takes with their money.

He says too many funds have been jeopardized by officials who promise increased benefits, then make no provision for how they will be paid. Insolvent funds are going to break the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., Robinson warns.

Robinson says he came by his financial education slowly.

Not much of a student while at Lewis and Clark High School, Robinson enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve after his junior year. Six months in boot camp, he says, straightened him out, and he received his diploma from LC in 1964.

He moved on to Eastern Washington University. Later, he attended Antioch College and the University of California, where he studied labor law. “I took every opportunity to learn because I was not a good student as a youngster,” Robinson says.

It was while he was a night student at EWU that Robinson began an apprenticeship with Spokane Roofing Co.

His success with the international’s pension funds has made him something of a troubleshooter for Roofer locals struggling with their own plans. “It’s a real nightmare for me,” Robinson says.

The work, however, frequently has him traveling, and Robinson often detours to Spokane, where he owns a South Hill home occupied by his parents, Kinsey W. and Robbie Robinson. Kinsey W. was an executive with Potlatch Corp.

Robinson still votes in Spokane County.

“I want to remain a Washingtonian of the West, not a Washingtonian of the East,” Robinson says.

By dint of his long incumbency, Robinson has become the senior secretary-treasurer within the AFL-CIO. The labor movement has struggled in recent years, he concedes, registering gains in the service and government sectors while slipping in manufacturing, particularly in the hard-hit Midwest.

The Roofers have increased in numbers five of the last six years, but Robinson says that’s because construction trade unions have negotiated cautiously. Wage hikes have not kept up with cost-of-living increases, he says, adding that unionized employers must be able to bid successfully against non-union competitors.

More federal construction projects that require payment of prevailing wages would be a shot in the arm, he says.

Robinson says he expects to remain in his position a few more years, perhaps do some consulting, and write. He and his wife are avid hunters, and he occasionally does pieces for “The Bird Hunting Report.”

“I’ve been doing this for a long time,” he says.

Words his grandfather might well have understood.

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