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 secured annual wage increases of 4 percent for 2026. Physicians at Jackson bargain for wages every year, a particular challenge in a state where lawmakers pull out every stop to undermine union power. 

Thanks to right-wing legislation designed to boost profits for the billionaire class at the expense of workers, CIR must maintain 60 percent membership rates at Jackson in order for doctors to retain their union representation and keep their hard-won rights and benefits. This is made more difficult by the fact that in Florida, unions cannot automatically deduct dues from workers, which raises the barrier for each physician to join their union. 

But CIR members at Jackson have not stopped fighting for their union rights or for the improvements they need to better care for themselves and their patients. Following countless texts and calls to coworkers and collective action, including a petition delivery and rally, as well as political advocacy, CIR reached a tentative agreement with the Jackson administration in January. 

Key to their victory was solidarity. In spite of the challenges, 99% of workers at Jackson have union representation, and CIR physicians worked together with SEIU 1991 and AFSCME 1963 members throughout their campaign to ensure that their administration couldn’t pit one union against the other.

This January, after six months of negotiations, physicians managed to push CEO Carlos Migoya and his team to agree to their central demand: wage equity with their public-sector, county worker colleagues. 

–

While union busting is not quite as systematic in New Mexico, CIR members at the University of New Mexico (UNM) are also fighting on steep ground–and winning! 

Like their Florida peers, UNM physicians must negotiate their wage increases annually, pushing back against creeping austerity at their public institution. This pushes physician union leaders to ensure they’re consistently talking with their coworkers about their union and building their capacity to take action.

Working in close partnership with other workers in the UNM Coalition of Unions, CIR members at UNM took action throughout negotiations, including at a unity break this past October. 

Because UNM is the very center of health care in New Mexico–a state that has the second-worst physician shortage in the country–winning strong support for UMN physicians is critical to attracting and retaining early-career doctors. 

Ultimately, through their organizing, the doctors won salary increases, expanded bereavement language, the protection of their non-discrimination language and education funds, and language protecting international medical graduates.