John P. Morris

John P. Morris
Morris in a 1993 publication of The New York Times
Born	John Paul Morris (1926-02-20)February 20, 1926 Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania, US
Died	April 28, 2002(2002-04-28) (aged 76) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US
Occupation	Trade unionist
Employer	International Brotherhood of Teamsters

John Paul Morris (February 20, 1926 – April 28, 2002) was an American trade unionist.

Morris was raised in a large family with deep ties to unionizing. He started first unionizing early in his life and founded Local 115 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in 1955. He served as the vice president of Local 115, from 1955 to 1999.

Known for his ability to be honest, aggressive, and intimidating, Morris was nicknamed the "Last of the Molly Maguires" by the press.

In 1999, Morris was dismissed from his role in the Teamsters by the Teamsters' president and was accused of attacking others and misusing personal funds. Morris sued in response and rejected these allegations asserting that his dismissal was retribution for serving under the union president's political opponent.

Early life

Morris was born on February 20, 1926, in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania. He was born into a family with a history of union support. His grandfather, his namesake, was a member of the Molly Maguires, a secret trade unionist society that battled against coal companies in the late 1800s. His grandfather ended up going to prison for seven years for his involvement with the organization, and after his release, later became a judge. The Molly Maguires later disbanded after having 19 of the leaders hanged.

Morris was part of a large Irish Catholic family and had eleven siblings. Morris's father, who was also from a large family with eleven siblings, worked as a child as a breaker boy separating slate from coal, and after an injury at age nine, became a piano tuner.

When he was 15, Morris accidentally touched a power line during a storm and was electrocuted. The electrocution sent 7,000 volts through his body and as a result, he lost most of the fingers on his right hand from the shock, only retaining his thumb.

Morris attended the University of Scranton on a football scholarship, and while in college organized the football team to successfully strike against the university to protest a lack of funds for football uniforms. While playing football for the college, he broke his nose in a game. Morris ended up leaving college after one year.

After college, Morris married Jean McCarthy, having 2 children and moving to Philadelphia together.

Career

"Me and another kid went down to the fur department and we stuffed pigeons in the sleeves of these expensive coats...When the store opened, women went in there and they're putting on these coats and the pigeons are flying. The supervisor came after me. 'You've done it! you've done it! What's going to happen next?' I said: 'Sign the contract. Here it is, right here. Sign it.' He signed it."
— John Morris describing his pigeon event to a reporter in 1993.

In Philadelphia, Morris got a job at Lit Brothers, where he led his first employee strike, winning the employees a raise through his tactics which included hiding pigeons in fur coat sleeves during a sale.

In 1955, Morris founded Local 115 of the Teamsters, with seven members. He was known for his aggressive organization, with strikes often lasting 3 months or more, and loudly playing songs, such as "We Will Rock You" in later years, from employee's trucks. He wrote a manual for organizing, which is used by union officials to organize. He was also known for his honesty, as evidenced by when in the 1970s a wiretap recorded a mobster stating that Morris should be killed because he would not betray members of his union. The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote about the incident saying that Morris was "[s]o clean, it seems, he was marked to die".

Morris had an intimidating presence on a picket line with his "stump for a right hand", a nose that had been broken twice, a collarbone that had been broken four times, and "scars of clubbings, stabbings and surgery on his chin, chest, back and across a kneecap".

At Local 115's peak, it had 2,700 members. It had a reputation for violence, with many threats and assaults being linked to the union by a magistrate in 1994. In 1998, multiple members of the union were arrested for attacking people protesting a visit to Philadelphia by Bill Clinton, whom Morris had campaigned for in 1992. For this, Time nicknamed him the "Last of the Molly Maguires".

In 1999, James P. Hoffa, then-president of the Teamsters, dismissed Morris as vice president of Local 115, and accused him of attacking union members and using funds to buy personal insurance and armaments, which included shotguns, stun guns, pepper spray, combat attire and multiple vehicles, all of which he stored in a building near union headquarters. In a lawsuit, Morris said the weapons were for a strike, and his removal was a punishment for serving under Hoffa's electoral opponent Ron Carey.

Death

Morris died on April 28, 2002, aged 76, in Philadelphia, from complications of arterial surgery.

After his death, Arthur Shostak, a professor of labor issues at Drexel University, said of Morris that he was a union leader that "never doubted and never retreated" and that "they're not making them like him anymore".