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BC hospital workers arrested The top leadership of the Hospital Employees’ Union in B.C. were arrested on November 21, 2002 at a protest in Chilliwack that successfully prevented a semi-trailer from trucking dirty hospital laundry to Alberta. HEU secretary-business manager Chris Allnutt, president Fred Muzin and financial secretary Mary LaPlante were taken into custody by the RCMP after K-Bro Linen Systems obtained an injunction from a judge in Vancouver. The four went peacefully. Health care workers and their supporters attended a rally near the sight at South Sumas and Unsworth roads the next night. The rally was a show of strength and solidarity against the government’s health privatization plans, and featured B.C. Federation of Labour president Jim Sinclair. HEU assistant secretary-business manager Zorica Bosancic says, "I think we’ve successfully raised the profile of the Campbell government’s policies that threaten patient health and safety and ship good jobs off to Alberta. "HEU members are committed to stopping health privatization and contracting out in British Columbia and will continue to creatively challenge attempts to put private profits before patient care and public health services." |