Puerto Rico’s CIR Members Stand Up for Themselves & Their Patients

¡Sí Se Puede!

May 2007

Residents from University of Puerto Rico during their 3-day work stoppage in 2005.

CIR is truly a union that operates on a national level, with chapters stretching not only from the East to West Coasts of the continental United States, but also to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. In fact, CIR’s nearly 500 intern and resident physicians in Puerto Rico have been among our most active members in recent years. If one thing is certain about these members, it is that they are not afraid to stand up for themselves and their patients.

Despite being democratically organized as a union and voluntarily paying CIR dues for years, CIR’s Puerto Rican chapter has been repeatedly refused official recognition as a union by their employers. For many employees, such a stonewalling would lead them to abandon their hopes of unionization out of frustration. However, CIR’s residents in Puerto Rico have fought on, using their collective voice to win short-term gains while continuing to push for employer recognition.

In the summer of 2005, after being repeatedly rebuffed by hospital administration, residents in the University of Puerto Rico residency program staged a three-day work stoppage. The action, which received great attention from the local press and support from the community, won the residents gains in previously stagnant wages and benefits, as well as key changes in working conditions that improved the safety of both residents and patients.

Additionally, while the work stoppage did not bring hospital administration to officially recognize the union, it did force the administration to agree to open discussions with CIR about other issues related to resident life. These discussions have made significant progress over the last two years.

Elsewhere, in the city of Bayamon, CIR members at the local hospital responded to the hospital’s refusal to grant them the raises and retroactive pay to which they were entitled. Once again, the residents took their case to the media, hosting a press conference covered by all the local papers and radio. Within days of the press conference, the hospital administration finally committed to pay the residents the amounts they were owed.

Puerto Rico’s CIR members have also mobilized for some tough political battles. This past year, they successfully fought off an effort to weaken the Commonwealth’s resident work hours law, which is the even stronger than U.S. law. The present law limits shifts to no more than 24 consecutive hours, inclusive of time spent on educational activities. The failed reform sought to use this educational time as a pretext to extend the limits of on-call shifts by six hours (matching U.S. law).

Demonstrating outside the Governor's residence to save Carolina Hospital.

CIR also rallied to protect Carolina Hospital, an important community health facility, from being sold off to private interests. Working in coalition with other community allies, CIR successfully lobbied the Puerto Rican legislature to create an independent, non-profit corporation to oversee Carolina Hospital and preserve its mission to the community.

However, the Governor of Puerto Rico has defiantly stood in the way of implementing this bill, hoping to circumvent these efforts and push forward with the hospital’s sale. In response, CIR organized a protest outside of the Governor’s residence in Old San Juan.

CIR’s Puerto Rico residents have vowed to continue the fight to defend Carolina Hospital into the next program year. With dedicated elected leaders and enthusiastic members, the Puerto Rico chapter also looks forward to achieving incremental gains from hospital administration, as they move closer to the ultimate goal of full union recognition.