Committee of Interns and Residents
The Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR) is the largest housestaff union in the United States, representing more than 20,000 interns, residents, and fellows in California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, New Mexico, and Washington, D.C. CIR contracts seek to improve housestaff salaries and working conditions as well as enhance the quality of patient care. CIR was founded in 1957. History. CIR was founded by interns and residents in New York City's public hospitals. In 1958, CIR achieved the first collective bargaining agreement for housestaff anywhere in the U.S. By the mid-1960s , CIR had established the only housestaff-administered benefit plan. By 1969-70, members in the private, or voluntary, sector started organizing and joining CIR. The CIR leadership is composed largely of primary care and medical subspecialists and its positions are controversial among surgical trainees. Additionally, the organization is heavily supportive of a progressive political agenda. In a landmark achievement in 1975, CIR won contractual limits for on-call schedules of one night in three. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, CIR successfully negotiated innovative maternity leave clauses, won provisions for pay for housestaff covering for absent colleagues, and in  1989 helped shape New York State's regulations that set maximum work hour limits for housestaff. Since then, CIR members have negotiated hours limitations and program security clauses in Miami, Los Angeles, and Boston. In May 1997, CIR affiliated with the 1.6 million-member Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which represents over 1 million healthcare workers nationwide. Its affiliation with SEIU has increased its strength wherever CIR represents housestaff. Mission. According to its website, CIR's mission is to be "the national voice for physicians-in-training, uniting and empowering them to create a better and more just healthcare system  for patients and healthcare workers and to improve training and quality of life for resident physicians, fellows, and their families."