Waterloo, Iowa. The 51st Convention of the Iowa Federation of Labor AFL-CIO has endorsed HR 676, single payer health care legislation introduced by Congressman John Conyers (D-MI). The Iowa AFL-CIO is the 22nd state labor federation to endorse the Conyers legislation.

Both the Hawkeye Labor Council in Cedar Rapids and the Southern Iowa Labor Council in Ottumwa submitted resolutions that had passed their councils endorsing HR 676. The convention combined both resolutions into one which resolved: “That the fifty-first Convention of the Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, hereby endorses HR 676, which would create a comprehensive single payer health care system in the US, by expanding a greatly improved Medicare system to every resident of the United States.”

The Iowa AFL-CIO Convention’s endorsement came amid a flurry of presidential campaign activity. Many of the Democratic presidential candidates addressed the convention and seven of the candidates attended and spoke at “Workers for a Better Iowa,” a dinner/forum which was sponsored by the Hawkeye Labor Council the Saturday after the convention ended. The following day, Sunday, August 19, all the Democratic candidates participated in a televised ABC News debate.

The California Nurses Association/NNOC in cooperation with Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) ran a series of pro single payer television ads in Iowa starting the day the convention opened and ending the day of the ABC News debate.