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