Union movement
Morris joined the Federated Liquor and Allied Industries Employees' Union of Australia – commonly known as the Liquor Trades' Union (LTU) – as a young man. He was elected to the union's state management committee in 1965 and began working as a paid organiser the following year.
In 1970, with the support of Neville Wran and Jim McClelland, Morris successfully sued the LTU in the Commonwealth Industrial Court, following allegations that the dominant faction associated with the Communist Party had unlawfully interfered in membership ballots. The court found that widespread misconduct had occurred and voided the union's 1969 election results. Morris led a "New Deal" ticket in the subsequent elections and was elected as state secretary, in what Graham Richardson later described as "one of the most bitter union fights in history".
Morris remained as state secretary of the LTU until 1981, when he was elected state president. He also served terms as national president of the union (1972–1975, 1984–1987) and as president of the Asia-Pacific division of the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (1980–1985). Morris remained as LTU president throughout his terms in the Senate. The LTU merged into the Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers' Union (LHMWU) in 1992, after which he became president of the new union's liquor division. In 1997, following an LHMWU restructure, Morris was given a redundancy package and instead made "honorary president" of the division.
Morris was known early in his career as a "strong defender of working conditions" with a "powerful appeal for the rank and file in the dispersed and casualised industry". In 1971 his union boycotted the Springbok tour in protest at apartheid. He led strike action on a number of occasions, including major strikes of hotel workers in 1977 and 1978. In 1986 he led a sit-in at Tooheys Brewery to protest superannuation entitlements.
In the late 1980s, allegations emerged from LTU opponents that Morris had neglected his duties as union president. After a narrow victory at the union's 1989 election he faced a legal challenge to the results as well as allegations of accounting irregularities in a union slush fund. The Sydney Morning Herald also reported that the LTU had employed several of his family members. In 1996, an Industrial Relations Commission of New South Wales judge criticised the union for "failing to apply for pay rises its membership had been legally entitled to for almost a decade" and alleged an "almost total lack of interest" from union officials in their employees. He was subject to further criticism in 1998 after it was reported that, despite receiving a redundancy package from the union, he had continued to receive substantial expense allowances and a free vehicle.
