Julia Rosario Jorge
 Julia Rosario Jorge has been a labor activist for nearly half a century. Born in the Bronx to a Dutch West Indies Merchant Seaman father and a Puerto Rican mother, raised in East Harlem, educated at Julia Richmond High School, Bronx Community College, and Cornell Labor College, she earned her BA degree from Empire State Labor College. Married in 1958 to the late Efren E.Jorge, she has two children, seven grand- children and six great grand-children.
Ms Jorge obtained a certificate in obstetrics from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1965 and worked at Lincoln Hospital for three and a half years, belonging to Local SEIU Local 1199. She moved to the NYC Community Development Agency in 1969, and soon became an activist member and then an officer of Social Service Employees Union Local 371, DC 37, AFSCME. Elected Vice President of Local 371 in May 1974, she was consecutively re-elected until February 1989.
Julia Jorge was appointed Commissioner of the New York State Workers Compensation Board by Governor Cuomo and confirmed by the New York State Senate in February 1989 and reconfirmed in July 1994. She is the first (and only, to date) member of Latin descent to serve NYS on the 13 member board. Jorge retired on in 1999.
Active in the DC 37 Retiree Association, Ms Jorge was elected in 2003 and continues to serve as the group’s VP for Inter-union Relations; she also co-chairs the Hispanic/Solidarity Committee; and represents the Retiree Association in the New York Central Chapter of Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, the Alliance of Retired Americans, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, the Council of Municipal Retiree Organizations, the MTA Elderly Advisory Board, the State Wide Institute of Puerto Rican & Hispanic Elderly, and the New York City Chapter of the National Conference of Puerto Rican Women. Ms Jorge is a dedicated active member of Cathedral Baptist Church since 1986.
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