At CIR Hospitals, Midwest Nice Means Ready to Fight

October 9, 2026

It takes more than a little cold and rain to deter a Midwestern doctor.

At noon on September 30, hundreds of University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC) resident physicians and fellows poured out of the hospital to gather for their unity break, braving the wet and chill to demand the contract they deserve.

“After months of negotiations and 90 days without a contract, we’ve decided it’s time to take this fight outside the bargaining table and into the streets,” said Dr. Joey Ballard, a CIR regional vice president and internal medicine resident.

As the cost of rent, groceries, and gas climb all the time, and as anti-immigrant violence continues to endanger patients and doctors alike, UIC physicians are seeking urgent improvements at the bargaining table. Their demands include critical wage increases, improved education funding, and crucial safety language for immigrant patients and physicians on visas.

Since winning their union with CIR in 2021, UIC housestaff have maintained a strong organizing culture, taking collective action again and again in order to safeguard patient care and physician well-being. Hospital management’s failure to offer reasonable proposals in this round of negotiations has only deepened the doctors’ resolve.

“We will not accept these insulting offers,” said Dr. Meera Sakthivel, a third-year family medicine resident. “We need UIC to meet us at the table in good faith and agree on a fair contract for our communities, our patients, and our futures.”

Doctors at the University of Minnesota (UMN) know the pain of their peers in Chicago. Well over a year since the physicians won their union, the university is still refusing to agree to a fair contract with its residents and fellows who work at the center of care for patients across the Twin Cities and beyond.

While winning a union is a crucial first step, it’s the ratified first collective bargaining agreement that truly solidifies the protections and benefits as union workers. The leaders of our institutions know this, and the more difficult they make it for housestaff to reach an agreement, the longer they can keep squeezing them for every extra cent possible.

This means that first contract campaigns can be arduous, but UMN doctors understand that if they do the hard work of deepening relationships with their coworkers and building their capacity to fight together, they are guaranteed to win. They stay motivated because they also know that winning will be life-changing for physicians and transformative for care.

In August, UMN housestaff held a press conference to demand an end to UMN’s delay in reaching a fair deal, especially as pressure grows on the doctors and the state’s physician shortage worsens.

“We took an oath to protect our patients, and that starts at the bargaining table,” said Dr. Schuyler Gaillard, a third-year Internal Medicine and Dermatology resident at the University of Minnesota. “We won’t settle for anything less than what we need to continue to provide quality care for our patients.”

UIC and UMN administrators can try to push CIR physicians around. But it takes more than a little wind to set midwestern doctors off our course.

Understanding S.P.I.T.

What are the benefits of forming a union?

When we come together as housestaff, we have a unified voice for safe working conditions and better patient outcomes. This pandemic has demonstrated that having workplace representation is urgent and necessary. Thousands of residents across the country have organized union chapters and have won historic improvements for housestaff and patients through collective bargaining agreements.

What’s legal? What’s not?

The laws vary from state to state as well as the type of employer you are paid by – private or public.Generally, however, most laws give employees the right to act together to try and improve their working conditions, with or without a union.It is illegal for employees to be fired, suspended, or otherwise penalized for taking part in protected group activity.

Generally, it is illegal for employers to S.P.I.T.:

(Document any activity that may look like this)

Surveil

Administration and department leadership may not conduct unlawful surveillance of employees’ union activity. Identifying, tracking and surveillance of employee discussions about the union or union meetings is illegal.

Examples:

Supervisors cannot inquire about what goes on at union meetings, ask which employees attend the meeting, or even give the impression of such surveillance.

Promise

Administration and department leadership must not directly or indirectly promise any benefits or reward employees for refusing to sign a union card, or for voting against your union. They may not promise a wage increase or give preferential treatment in exchange for refraining from union activity. Encouraging employees to withdraw or repudiate union authorization cards is also unlawful. They may not solicit grievances about working conditions while expressly or impliedly promising corrections if residents do not form a union.

Examples:

“I can get you a job here or give you a good recommendation letter if you don’t get involved.”

Reminder: There is nothing holding management accountable to any promises they make and they do not have to follow through.

Interrogate

Administration and department leadership should not interrogate, or ask, any employee whether or not he or she favors the union, has signed a union card, or has gone to a union meeting.

You can always say you’re not comfortable answering their questions. Remember to ask whether they’ve talked to others, whether they know if they’re allowed to ask, and if they have concerns about residents forming a union and what they are.

Questions they may ask:

Have you heard of a union being formed? Are you involved? Have you been asked to sign a card? Do any of your colleagues have interest in forming a union? Who have you heard union talk from? Do you think you’ll join?

Threaten

Administration and program leadership must not threaten employees with harm or reprisals (economic or otherwise) if they decide to get involved with the union or sign a union card.

Examples:

Administration may not threaten to take away residency spots or current department benefits if the residents decide to form or join a union.

What can we do to protect ourselves?

Despite being generally protected, it is always a good idea to be extra careful:

Remember to be discrete and never seek advice or reveal to management/administration that you are considering unionizing
Refrain from using hospital property – both physical (printers, computers, phones) – and intellectual (email, paging/messaging systems) – in communicating regarding union matters
Be mindful of where and when you discuss unionization with your colleagues – being overheard talking about unions in the hospital “on company time” can be considered “solicitation,” so exercise caution and discretion
As long as you are using personal means of communication such as personal phones, emails, and only talking to other interns, residents, or fellows, the hospital cannot discipline you

Reminder: Forming a union is 100% our legal right and our vote is anonymous.

At CIR Hospitals, Midwest Nice Means Ready to Fight

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