High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Thomas Edward Skinner, KBE, (1909–1991), was a New Zealand politician and trade union leader. He was president of the Auckland Trades Council from 1954 to 1976, and president of the New Zealand Federation of Labour from 1959 until 1979. Skinner was known as a conciliatory and accommodating leader, and in the 1970s he was seen as the voice of unionism in New Zealand. He served on several international union forums, including a spell as a member of the body controlling the International Labour Organisation. He was instrumental in founding the Shipping Corporation of New Zealand, and was knighted in 1976.