CIR/SEIU Healthcare

Staying Connected through CIR – Where to Find Us

When you spend your life in the hospital, it can be hard to keep up with the world outside. CIR can help you stay connected, even if you just have a few minutes to get online. Your colleagues want to hear what you’re up to, whether it’s a new contract, a campaign against budget cuts, or an international service trip.

There are lots of ways to get plugged in to CIR:

Become a Fan of CIR on Facebook.
Sign up for CIR Text Messages. Stay in the loop on what’s happening with health care reform implementation and CIR events in your region. Text “CIR” to 787753. (Note: standard text messaging rates apply.)

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CIR Members Elect a New Executive Committee

Thumbnail of national officers
From left to right: Dr. John Ingle, Secretary-Treasurer; Dr. Hillary Tompkins, Executive Vice President; Dr. Farbod Raiszadeh, President.

This spring, the membership of the CIR elected new resident physician officers to its Executive Committee, the governing body that guides the operations of the union between annual conventions. Each of the national offices -- President, Executive Vice President, and Secretary-Treasurer -- changed hands, as did all but two of the eleven Regional Vice President positions. As always, CIR lived up to its motto of being governed by residents for residents by electing a cross-section of its membership, showing diversity in specialty, geography, country of origin, and even political party.

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Change Is Coming to St. Barnabas Hospital

Legal Victory Paves Way for Residents’ Voices to Finally Be Heard
Almost a year after the resident physicians at St. Barnabas Hospital voted on whether to join CIR, their votes were unsealed and counted on June 11, 2010. With 119 voting in favor of the union and only two against, it was a resounding victory for the residents who have fought for almost two years for a union. An additional 47 ballots were not included in the vote count because of legal challenges from the hospital.

For the residents who started the organizing campaign in 2008, it was a sweet victory. Many had already started to discuss concrete improvements they could negotiate when the hospital comes to the bargaining table.

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Talking About Resident Work Hours and Supervision

For decades, patient safety groups have been calling for measures to better protect patients from medical error. Now, advocates are turning their attention to the strong evidence linking the working conditions of sleep-deprived and/or under-supervised resident physicians and medical error.

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Health Care Reform Passes!

After all the rallies, all the calls to Congress, all the Letters to the Editor, all the visits to Capitol Hill, all the reading and presentations to learn what was in the bill and whether it would do right by resident physicians and their patients, all the arguments and all the rhetoric, health care reform is now the law of the land.

Learn what's in the bill.

Learn what CIR fought for.

Learn what you can do next.

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