In Memoriam: Blondie P. Jordan

by Clyde Weiss  |  September 01, 2011

Blondie P. Jordan

Blondie P. Jordan, 76, president of AFSCME Florida Council 79 from 1983 until 1996, and also a former AFSCME International vice president (IVP), passed away on August 29.

Jordan “was always a strong advocate for workers’ rights,” says current Council 79 Pres. Jeanette Wynn, also an International vice president. Wynn, who was the council’s secretary-treasurer during Jordan’s administration, says she knows of no one who better “carried the torch for Florida” than Jordan. “She was always standing up and being out-front for public employees.”

“Sister Jordan’s fighting spirit lives on today in AFSCME,” says AFSCME International Pres. Gerald W. McEntee. “Her dedication to equality for women, African Americans and all minorities is a lasting legacy that inspires us all to reach within ourselves to fight for justice in the workplace, and wherever people are treated unfairly. We will miss her.”

Jordan, the daughter of Georgia sharecroppers, credited her struggles as a single parent raising six children for making “a real labor union person out of me,” she said in a 1982 interview with AFSCME’s Public Employee. “It made me determined to make America better for the oncoming generation.”

Jordan’s determination to improve workers’ rights – particularly pay equity for women – began after she got a job at the Sunland Hospital in Orlando in 1974. She soon realized that women workers at the state-run facility for the mentally disabled were treated differently than their male counterparts.

“It seemed to me it was unfair to not have any say in what you are paid, but to have to depend on an arbitrary evaluation by someone who just automatically counts you out,” she told The Palm Beach Post in 1985. “So, you see, I was ready when the representative from AFSCME came around, and I worked hard recruiting everyone I could to the union.”

Jordan also recalled the racism she encountered at work. “White women worked in wards with babies and younger children, while black women seemed always to be assigned to older clients who were heavier to lift and more difficult to care for,” she said. When better positions opened up, black workers were passed over.

“It made me angry to think that I worked just as hard – harder actually – and yet I had no chance whatsoever for one of those better jobs,” she said in the 1985 interview.

Jordan’s anger turned into activism, for which her co-workers rewarded her by electing Jordan president and steward of their new union, AFSCME Local 1967. She soon began to understand just how important a union could be.

“I guess the first time I realized what the union really could do was when I took an employee in to management and got their job back after they had been fired,” she said in her interview with The Palm Beach Post.

At AFSCME’s 25th International Convention, in 1982, Jordan was elected the first black IVP chosen from a southern state (representing the Caribbean region, including Puerto Rico and Panama). The next year, she was elected president of Council 79, defeating two other candidates. From that post, Jordan continued to fight for women’s rights, vowing: “If we are going to be in the workforce, we want to make a dollar. For that reason, women and AFSCME, in particular, continue to work for pay equity.”

Reflecting on her unusual first name in the Public Employee interview, Jordan said, “When I was born, I was given the name ‘Blondie’ by one of my aunts. I’ve had a lot of problems with that name, and I never did find out why I got it.”

Jordan leaves six children: Duren Russell Jordan, Jr.; Mark C. Jordan, Gregory Jordan, Vickie Jordan, Wanda Williams (Jerry), Gloria Jordan; sister: Betty Denson; brothers: Samuel Wilkerson, Jr.; John Willie Wilkerson; 10 grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that monetary donations be made to: Community Hospice of Northeast Florida Foundation, 4266 Sunbeam Rd., Jacksonville, FL, 32257. Cards or other condolences can be sent to Mitchell’s Funeral Home, 501 Fairvilla Rd., Orlando FL, 32808.