Micheline Louis Charles, CNA
Recording Secretary
Micheline Louis Charles is Recording Secretary of the SEIU Florida Healthcare Union, the highest ranking Haitian labor leader in Florida and the Southeast. She is a Certified Nurse Aid (CNA) at Fountainhead Nursing Home during the day and at Mount Sinai Hospital at night. She is the President of Unite for Dignity for Immigrant Workers Rights, Inc., (UFD) whose mission is to help develop the leadership ability of immigrant workers so that they have the tools and the confidence to lead the various struggles in their communities. She is a trainer for the UFD Leadership Academy and serves on the advisory board of Immigrant Families Partnership formed by Mi Familia Vota, Carribean Family Votes and Unite for Dignity. She previously served as the First Vice President of SEIU 1199 Florida and a member of the Executive Board of UNITE's Southern Region.
Louis Charles came to the United States from Haiti on February 7, 1974. Her first job was as a factory worker from 1974 to 1986, until the factory moved to Costa Rica. She then decided to study to obtain her CNA's certificate. She became a CNA in 1987 and started to work at Fountainhead Nursing Home. Outraged by the unfair treatment given to the workers at Fountainhead, Louis Charles started the union drive to form a union at the nursing home. They won their election the second time around and since then she has served as a shop steward.
Louis Charles is a long time activist, a "Fanm Vanyan" fighting for justice for the immigrant workers in Florida. She has testified numerous times before state representatives in Tallahassee to help pass progressive bills on behalf of healthcare workers. Every year, she is part of the "purple wave" of SEIU healthcare workers who lobby Tallahassee's law makers. She testified before the ALF-CIO panel chaired by Linda Chavez Thompson, regarding immigrants and labor. She fasted for freedom for Haitian immigrant children kept in detention for seeking a better life in the United States. She actively organized the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride that left Miami in the fall of 2004 to meet with thousands of immigrant freedom riders in Washington D.C. and New York to demand better treatment for immigrants. She is regularly featured on the Haitian Radio program "Travaye An Avan" and as an active member of Fanm Ayisyen nan Miami, and was among the Haitian women activists who were honored by the organization in 2003 for their great contribution in the community. She traveled to Haiti for the presidential inauguration as a representative of SEIU 1199 Florida and met with President Aristide.
She raised five children who are now successful professionals working in the United States. She is also a proud grandmother of six children, two of whom she is raising.