Thomas McKenna (trade unionist)

Thomas McKenna (4 April 1876[1] – 13 October 1939) was a British trade unionist.

McKenna was born in Felling, Tyne and Wear, to an Irish father.[2][3] By 1885, McKenna was employed at an ironworks in Stockton-on-Tees, and he joined the National Association of Blastfurnacemen in 1889,[4] becoming an official of the renamed National Federation of Blastfurnacemen around 1899.[5] He was elected as secretary of the Cleveland and Durham Blastfurnacemen and Cokemen's Association in 1912,[6] then in 1914, he was elected as the federation's president,[4] and as its general secretary in 1917.[7]

Under McKenna's leadership, the federation became a more centralised union, the National Union of Blastfurnacemen, Ore Miners, Coke Workers and Kindred Trades.[4] He also took part in the International Metalworkers' Federation, becoming secretary of its British section in 1930.[5]

In 1939, McKenna was appointed to the iron and steel control committee of the Ministry of Supply, but he died later in the year.[5]

References
  1. Thomas McKenna, trade union general secretary in Saltburn and Marske-by-the-Sea, Yorkshire, 1939 England and Wales Register
  2. 1881 England Census
  3. 1911 England Census
  4. Labour Party, Report of the Labour Party Conference (1939), p.53
  5. Trades Union Congress, "Obituary: Mr Thomas McKenna, OBE", Annual Report of the 1940 Trades Union Congress, p.218
  6. Peter Stubley, "The churches and the iron and steel industry in Middlesbrough 1890-1914", p.40
  7. Arthur Marsh and Victoria Ryan, Historical Directory of Trade Unions, vol.2, p.279
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