Chris Allnutt Interview: Fighting for Healthcare Workers

Chris Allnutt’s deep desire to fight for people who can’t fight for themselves and make the world a better place led him to work in the labour movement. He first worked for associations representing professionals and scientists who were mostly employed by crown corporations in Ontario and British Columbia. He then worked for a couple of years for the B.C. Nurses’ Union before being hired by the Hospital Employees’ Union (HEU) as a researcher in 1989.He became the union’s secretary-business manager in 1996. In this interview, he discusses his work as a researcher and his subsequent leadership role, including negotiations for the groundbreaking employment security agreement during healthcare restructuring in the 1990s. The interview also focuses on the conflict with the B.C. Liberal government in the early 2000s, when they sought to privatize hospital services and strip the HEU’s collective bargaining rights, leading to an illegal strike and Allnutt’s eventual dismissal. Despite the challenges, the HEU fought back, and the union’s case eventually led to a landmark Supreme Court of Canada decision which is now the hallmark of charter rights for unions in Canada. In the interview, Chris also speaks fondly about and with admiration for the strength of the HEU membership. After leaving the HEU, Chris worked with the environmental movement as a spokesperson for the Great Bear Rainforest project.