James A. Gross (born 1933) is an American educator and historian who teaches

United States labor law United States labor law sets the rights and duties for employees, labor unions, and employers in the US. Labor law's basic aim is to remedy the " inequality of bargaining power" between employees and employers, especially employers "organized in ...

and

labor history Labor history is a sub-discipline of social history which specializes on the history of the working classes and the labor movement. Labor historians may concern themselves with issues of gender, race, ethnicity, and other factors besides class ...

at the

Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations The New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University (ILR) is an industrial relations school and one of Cornell University's Statutory college#Cornell University, statutory colleges. The school has five academic depar ...

. He is the author of a highly regarded three-volume history of the

National Labor Relations Board The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States that enforces United States labor law, U.S. labor law in relation to collect ...

(NLRB) and is considered the leading historian of the NLRB.Compa, "Trade Unions and Human Rights," in ''Bringing Human Rights Home,'' 2008, p. 244.

Career

James Gross was born in 1933 and raised near

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

."Faculty Profile: James Gross," ''ILR Connections,'' Winter 2002.
/ref> He played baseball as a youth, and for many years pursued a career as a major league ball player. He graduated from

La Salle University La Salle University () is a private university, private, Catholic university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The university was founded in 1863 by the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools and named for St. Jean-Bapt ...

with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

in 1956.Gross, ''Workers' Rights As Human Rights,'' 2006, p. 261.Colosi, ''Proceedings of Two Seminars Sponsored by Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service,'' 1968, p. 81. He entered the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

after college. But after only a short time on active duty he left the military and enrolled at

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist ministe ...

, where he received a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

in 1957. Although he still wanted to play professional baseball, at the urging of friends he enrolled in the graduate doctoral program at the

University of Wisconsin-Madison A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

. Dissatisfied with the degree program, he decided to leave and take a job with the

Continental Can Company Continental Can Company (CCC) was an American producer of metal containers and packaging company, that was based in Stamford, Connecticut."CONTINENTAL GROUP COMPANY." ''International Directory of Company Histories''. Ed. Thomas Derdak. Vol. 1. Chic ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. But the university offered him a teaching assistant position, and he stayed in school. Although he almost left again, he was asked to teach a class (which gave him more money to live on) and discovered that he very much enjoyed teaching. Gross received his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from the University of Wisconsin in 1962. Gross taught as an assistant professor at Holy Cross College from 1960 to 1966 before joining the faculty at Cornell. He was named an associate professor in 1968 and a full professor in 1975. His three-volume history of the National Labor Relations Board has been called "authoritative" and "exhaustive". The second volume in the trilogy, ''The Reshaping of the National Labor Relations Board: National Labor Policy in Transition, 1937-1947'', won the prestigious Philip Taft Labor History Book Award in 1983.

Memberships and awards

Gross is a member of the

National Academy of Arbitrators The National Academy of Arbitrators (NAA) is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) honorary and professional organization of labor arbitrators in the United States and Canada that was founded in 1947. Its avowed purpose was "to foster the highest standards ...

, the

American Arbitration Association The American Arbitration Association (AAA) is an organization focused in the field of alternative dispute resolution, one of several arbitration organizations that administers arbitration proceedings. Structured as a non-profit, the AAA also admin ...

, and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. He has also worked as a labor relations mediator for the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

and

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

. Gross is the recipient of a grant from the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

,Gross, ''Broken Promise: The Subversion of American Labor Relations Policy, 1947-1994,'' 1996, p. xv. and in 2007 was Fulbright Visiting Research Chair in Corporate Social Responsibility at

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

Footnotes

Bibliography

*Colosi, Thomas R. ''Proceedings of Two Seminars Sponsored by Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.'' Jamestown, N.Y.: Jamestown Community College Press, 1968. *Compa, Lance. "Trade Unions and Human Rights." In ''Bringing Human Rights Home.'' Cynthia Soohoo, Catherine Albisa, and Martha F. Davis, eds., Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2008.
"Faculty Profile: James Gross." ''ILR Connections.'' Winter 2002.
Accessed 2010-11-17. *Gross, James A. ''Rights, Not Interests: Resolving Value Clashes Under the National Labor Relations Act.'' Ithaca, N.Y.: ILR Press, 2017. *Gross, James A. ''Broken Promise: The Subversion of American Labor Relations Policy, 1947-1994.'' Philadelphia, Pa.: Temple University Press, 1996. *Gross, James A., ed. ''Workers' Rights As Human Rights.'' Albany, N.Y.: ILR Press, 2006. *Hodges, James A. "The Real Norma Rae." In ''Southern Labor in Transition, 1940-1995.'' Robert H. Zieger, ed. Knoxville, Tenn.: University of Tennessee Press, 1997. *Hornby, Lance. "WHA-t Is Event's Status?" ''Toronto Sun.'' April 26, 2005. *Johnson, Christopher H. ''Maurice Sugar: Law, Labor, and the Left in Detroit, 1912-1950.'' Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1988. *Law, Gordon T., ed. ''A Guide to Sources of Information on the National Labor Relations Board.'' Florence, Ky.: Routledge, 2002.
Miller, J. Gormly; McGinnis, Boodie N.; and Julian, Robert R. "Appendix A : Time Line, Events, Incidents, and Items of Note." In ''The ILR School at Fifty: Voices of the Faculty, Alumni & Friends.'' Paper 14. 1996.
Accessed 2010-11-17.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gross, James A. 1934 births La Salle University alumni Temple University alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Cornell University faculty Labor historians Writers from New York (state) Writers from Pennsylvania Writers from Wisconsin Living people