Who We Are

Nearly 90% of the interns and residents employed by St. Barnabas Hospital have signed a petition designating the Committee of Interns and Residents/SEIU Healthcare as our exclusive bargaining representative for the purposes of negotiating salaries, benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment.

The Committee of Interns and Residents is the largest housestaff union in the country, representing more than 13,000 residents in California, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico,New York, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. CIR contracts improve housestaff salaries and working conditions as well as enhance the quality of patient care. CIR was founded in 1957.

In May, 1997, CIR affiliated with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which now has 2 million members and over 1 million healthcare workers all over the country. Our affiliation with SEIU has increased our strength wherever CIR represents housestaff.

Why We’re Organizing

At St. Barnabas Hospital, the resident physicians are the front line providers of care. We’re the people who treat patients in the Emergency Room, see patients in the clinics, and diagnose and care for those patients in the hospital wards. Although we contribute heavily to the hospital’s operations, we are not treated with the same respect afforded to other employees.

As housestaff, we believe that the most effective way to have a unified voice and to work successfully with the hospital administration and our community in the Bronx is to form a union. By forming a union, residents and interns will be better equipped to advocate for improved patient care, increased patient flow, the quality of education in our programs, and our quality of life.

As employees who provide direct services to patients on a daily basis, we are in the best position to identify issues that cause patient dissatisfaction. We believe that delegating responsibilities efficiently and maintaining adequate staffing levels on the floors can enhance both patient care and patient satisfaction. By forming a union, we can successfully advocate for changes that will bring more revenue into the hospital and encourage more patients to seek their primary care at St. Barnabas. Our ultimate goal is to work with the administration and other staff to develop strategies that ensures St. Barnabas Hospital provides the highest quality patient care and remains economically viable in the future.