SEIU New Jersey State Council, SEIU

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What is CIR?

Resident physicians who are members of CIR/SEIU sign a petition in favor of a bill to limit the excessive hours that residents work, which can be as high as 100 hours a week.

The Committee of Interns and Residents/SEIU (CIR/SEIU), founded in 1957, is the country's largest and oldest housestaff union. CIR represents more than 12,000 resident physicians in New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Florida, California, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. In 1997, CIR affiliated with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), becoming part of the 700,000-strong SEIU Health Care Alliance.

CIR in New Jersey

CIR represents approximately 1,500 residents in New Jersey, which is nearly half of all resident physicians in the state. CIR members are based at six hospital systems, including UMDNJ, and provide services on a rotating basis to over 60 more. CIR members work to improve patient care and quality of life for resident physicians both in their own hospitals, and for residents nationwide. CIR members lobby and testify in favor of legislation for work hour standards that will reduce the excessive hours that threaten quality patient care. Residents in New Jersey, unlike their New York counterparts, are not protected from excessive work hours. They can work up to 90-100 hours per week, with shifts as long as 36 hours. This results in chronic sleep deprivation, which undermines quality patient care.

CIR Campaigns For Resident Hour Reform

CIR has been working for more than 40 years to limit excessive resident work hours. The union played a decisive role in the 1989 passage of New York State regulations to reduce resident work hours, known as the Bell Regulations. Residents in Puerto Rico lobbied and won work hour protections with a new law that went into effect in January 2003.

In New Jersey, the State Assembly voted by an overwhelming margin on June 20, 2002, to pass A. 1852, a bill, which is modeled after New York's successful regulations. It calls for no more than 80 hours of work per week, averaged over a four-week period, overnight "on-call" duty in the hospitals limited to every third night; and shifts of no more than 24 consecutive hours.

CIR members continue to work for hours reform on both the state, and federal level.

Go to CIR's Home Page