Charles J. Morris is an American legal scholar who is the professor of law emeritus at the

Dedman School of Law SMU Dedman School of Law, commonly referred to as SMU Law School or Dedman School of Law is a law school located in Dallas, Texas. It was founded in February 1925. SMU Law School is located on the campus of its parent institution, Southern Meth ...

Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = "The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , prov ...

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...

. He is an internationally-renowned labor law scholar and authority on the

National Labor Relations Act The National Labor Relations Act of 1935, also known as the Wagner Act, is a foundational statute of United States labor law that guarantees the right of private sector employees to organize into trade unions, engage in collective bargaining, and ...

Education

Morris attended

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...

, the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

, and

Washington and Lee University , mottoeng = "Not Unmindful of the Future" , established = , type = Private liberal arts university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.092 billion (2021) , president = William C. Dudley , provost = Lena Hill , city = Lexingto ...

before earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then called Ba ...

through the

Army Specialized Training Program The Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) was a military training program instituted by the United States Army during World War II to meet wartime demands both for junior officers and soldiers with technical skills. Conducted at 227 American u ...

. He later earned a Bachelor of Laws from

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

Career

Morris joined the

in 1966. In 2005, he initiated a major discussion within the

American labor movement The labor history of the United States describes the history of organized labor, US labor law, and more general history of working people, in the United States. Beginning in the 1930s, unions became important allies of the Democratic Party. T ...

with the publication of his book, '' The Blue Eagle At Work: Reclaiming Democratic Rights In The American Workplace.'' Morris argued that in the absence of a union representing a majority of the employees in a workplace, the

requires an employer to bargain with a union that represents only a minority number of the employees. Morris argued that such "members-only bargaining" was once common practice in the United States, and he suggests that "members-only bargaining" should be used to jump-start the union organizing. Morris' conclusions have generated considerable controversy. On August 14, 2007, seven American labor unions asked the

National Labor Relations Board The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an independent agency of the federal government of the United States with responsibilities for enforcing U.S. labor law in relation to collective bargaining and unfair labor practices. Under the Natio ...

to force employers to bargain with their member-only unions, even though the unions represent a minority number of workers. The case is seen as a major test of Morris' "Blue Eagle" legal theory.Steven Greenhouse, "Seven Unions Ask Labor Board to Order Employers to Bargain," ''New York Times,'' August 15, 2007. Morris is the author of three books and a large number of articles. He is a member of the national advisory board of the '' Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law.''

Personal life

Now retired, Morris lives in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

Published works

*''How the Working Class Can Help the Middle Class: Reintroducing Non-Majority Collective Bargaining to the American Workplace''. Lake Mary, FL: Vandeplas Publishing, 2019. *''The Blue Eagle At Work: Reclaiming Democratic Rights In The American Workplace.'' Ithaca, N.Y.: ILR Press, 2004. *''American Labor Policy: A Critical Appraisal of the National Labor Relations Act.'' Washington, D.C.: BNA Books, 1987. *''Developing Labor Law: The Board, The Courts, and the National Labor Relations Act.'' Washington, D.C.: BNA Books, 1983.

References

External links

Dedman School of Law, Southern Methodist University
American legal scholars American legal writers Labor historians Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Southern Methodist University faculty {{US-legal-academic-bio-stub