Bill Morris, Baron Morris of Handsworth
Lord Temporal | |
---|---|
In office 7 June 2006 – 21 July 2020 Life peerage | |
General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union | |
In office 1992–2003 | |
Deputy General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union | |
In office 1986–1992 | |
Personal details | |
Born | William Manuel Morris 19 October 1938 (age 85) Manchester Parish, Jamaica |
Nationality | British |
Occupation | legislator, appointee to various quangos |
Known for | first black leader of a British trade union |
William Manuel Morris, Baron Morris of Handsworth,
Morris sat in the House of Lords, under the Labour Party whip, from 2006 to 2020.
Early life
Bill Morris was born in Manchester Parish, Jamaica. After the death of his father, William, a part-time policeman, his mother, Una, emigrated to England to find work settling in Handsworth, Birmingham. Morris joined her in the UK in 1954, finding work at a local car parts manufacturer, Hardy Spicer Engineering Ltd.
Morris married Minetta in 1957. His wife died in 1990. They have two sons.
Trade union career
Morris joined the Transport and General Workers' Union in 1958, and became a
Morris was elected general secretary when Ron Todd retired in 1992. He was re-elected in 1995, ahead of Jack Dromey. He remained in the post until his retirement on his 65th birthday, 19 October 2003, when he was succeeded as general secretary by Tony Woodley.
Morris was a member of the TUC General Council and executive committee from 1988 to 2003. He was appointed a non-executive director of the Bank of England in 1998. He was also a member of the Royal Commission on the Reform of the House of Lords from 1999 to 2000. He is a member of the Board of Governors of London South Bank University, a Trustee of the Open University Foundation, and the member of the Courts of the University of Northampton and the University of Bedfordshire. He was appointed as the first Chancellor of the University of Technology, Jamaica in 1999 and as Chancellor of Staffordshire University in 2004. He has been a member of the advisory councils of the BBC and IBA and a Commissioner of the Commission for Racial Equality. He chaired the Morris Inquiry into professional standards in the Metropolitan Police in 2004. He sits as a member of the Employment Appeal Tribunal. He is also a patron of the Refugee Council. In 1995 he refused to give union backing to 500 Liverpool dock workers who were sacked, claiming that it was an unofficial strike even though the union had failed to act on concerns relayed to the union in the lead up to the dispute, in effect leaving the dock workers to fight the cause themselves.
Morris is an independent non-executive Director of the England and Wales Cricket Board.
House of Lords
Morris was awarded the
In August 2014, Morris was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.[4]
He retired from the House of Lords on 21 July 2020.[5]
References
- ^ "No. 56963". The London Gazette (Supplement). 14 June 2003. p. 1.
- ^ "New working life peers unveiled". BBC News. 11 April 2006. Archived from the original on 13 March 2007. Retrieved 11 April 2006.
- ^ "No. 58007". The London Gazette. 12 June 2006. p. 8001.
- ^ "Celebrities' open letter to Scotland – full text and list of signatories". The Guardian. London. 7 August 2014. Archived from the original on 17 August 2014. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
- ^ "Lord Morris of Handsworth". UK Parliament. Archived from the original on 11 August 2020. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
External links
- Profile from BBC News, 14 April 2000
- Bill Morris Home Page
- Catalogue of Morris's papers, held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick