U.S. Congressman John Conyers (D MI), chief sponsor of HR 676, was honored at a December 6th Labor Breakfast co-hosted by the New York City Central Labor Council and the Progressive Democrats of America in celebration of the endorsement by the 1.3 million member NYC CLC of HR 676, Expanded and Improved Medicare for All.

Congressman Conyers told of the energy that the endorsement of HR 676 by the NYC CLC brings to the movement of healthcare for all, reports Robert Score, Recording-Corresponding Secretary of IATSE Local One. Score has played a leadership role in advancing HR 676 within New York labor and in union locals across the country. NYC CLC President Vincent Alvarez, a member of IBEW Local 3, delivered the opening remarks. He said that the forces within the industrial-insurance complex, although powerful, must be confronted before the working class families of our country are completely decimated by the ever increasing costs of health care. He spoke of the necessity for all working people, union and non-union, to have proper healthcare. Stephen Shaff spoke on behalf of PDA, and special guest television broadcaster Phil Donohue, introduced Congressman John Conyers who has sponsored HR 676 in every Congress since 2003. The legislation currently has a total of 54 co-sponsors, the most recent being Rep. Betty McCollum of Minnesota who has signed on for the first time even though she is in her 4th term. Conyers noted that four days after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968, he introduced a bill to make King’s birthday a national holiday.

“It took 15 years before Congress joined with me to make Dr. King’s birthday a national legal holiday. So I’m in this for the long run,” said Congressman Conyers.