Blog Archives

  • CIR Takes Action Against ICE Across the Country

    Many people weren’t sure if the day of action would be successful once they saw the forecast. At minus 20 degrees, your nose hairs freeze. You want to have as little skin exposed to the elements as possible. You generally do not want to be standing outside, chanting and holding a megaphone, or marching downtown,…

  • Doctors at Sutter Santa Rosa Secure Strong Contract

    CIR members at Sutter Santa Rosa always understood their contract fight to be as much about patient care as winning better support for physicians.  “We want to, we need to, show up to give 100% to our patients but it’s a challenge when we’re overworked and underpaid, juggling 300,000 dollars in medical debt and living…

  • Jackson and University of New Mexico Physicians Refuse to Back Down

    Even in the heart of Trump country and amid increasing austerity nationwide, CIR members are refusing to back down, moving the needle forward year after year through focused, consistent organizing and action.  At Jackson Memorial Health in Miami, where resident physicians continue to face an onslaught of attacks–like their peers across Florida’s labor movement–CIR just…

  • Learning from Our Physician Comrades in Kenya

    On May Day, CIR members across the country wore armbands to support the Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU), who were on strike for return of their stolen wages, and more. Along with this action, SEIU, CIR’s parent union, also wrote a letter calling on the U.S. Department of Labor to use its…

  • Alameda Health System: Organizing Gets the Goods 

    After taking action again and again, and with 98.4% of voting members authorizing a strike, resident physicians at Alameda Health System won a groundbreaking deal in May. Their new contract includes total compensation increases of more than 20% over three years, the right to honor their coworkers’ picket lines, and an amazing $60-an-hour call pay…

  • CIR Opposes Trump Administration Public Charge Rule

    This rule will go into effect February 24, 2020; the U.S. Supreme Court lifted the injunction that had halted the Trump Administration’s draconian changes to the Public Charge rule from going into effect, meaning in all states but Illinois this rule is now in effect. Historically, the Public Charge rule has been used to deny…

  • CIR Statement on Recent Abortion Laws

    Recently the states of Alabama and Georgia have enacted laws to eliminate the gains won for reproductive freedoms under Roe v. Wade. Alabama has the strictest legislation with a total abortion ban, no exceptions even in the cases of rape, incest, or the mother’s health. There is also upcoming legislation in my home state of Texas as well…

  • New Zealand Shooting at Christchurch mosques

    Words cannot describe the sadness and anger that I feel and that our executive committee shares at the massacre that took place in New Zealand. It’s horrible that in the United States we have witnessed this type of violence perpetrated in a Sikh gurdwara, in the Pittsburgh Synagogue, in the black Church in Charleston, and…

  • PROPOSED “PUBLIC CHARGE” RULE IS A THREAT TO PUBLIC HEALTH

    The rule change by the Trump Administration threatens the health and safety of immigrants, their families and their communities. “Public charge” is a rule used in a variety of immigration cases to determine who can be denied status based on their use of certain public benefits as their main source of support. Under the new…

  • We Stand United. America Needs Union Jobs.

    Since Fall of last year we have been working as interns, residents, and fellows to recommit to one another and to our strong union—the Committee of Interns and Residents. We have built and continue to build an organization by and for resident physicians committed to learning, service, advocacy, and community. We did so in anticipation…