Podcast - Heartland Labor Forum

This podcast tracks the audio archives for the “Heartland Labor Forum” radio show. The Heartland Labor Forum is Kansas City’s only program about the workplace. It’s radio that talks back to the boss! Whether you’re a union member or your workplace isn’t organized, Heartland Labor Forum (HLF) has stories for you, guaranteed to inspire, educate, or enrage you.

Alise Martiny: Woman at the Top – and – Steve Gercone of the Roofers Union

Kansas City’s Alise Martiny is one of the highest ranking women in building trades union history.  This week on the Heartland Labor Forum, we’ll talk to her and find out how she rose from Cement Mason apprentice to VP of the Operative Plasterers’ & Cement Masons’ International Association.  Then a roofer’s...

Teamsters for a Democratic Union: Is It in the Vanguard of Labor?

Teamsters for a Democratic Union or TDU has for almost half a century led the fight for rank-and-file union democracy and been a leader fighting back against increasingly greedy corporations. Earlier this month two Heartland Labor Forum volunteers attended the 48th Annual Teamsters for a Democratic Union Convention in Chicago,...

Banned but not Forgotten; The State of KCMO School Libraries – and – Challenges and Opportunities in the Midwest Since COVID – EPI

In May 2022, the Heartland Labor Forum reported on censorship in public schools. We’ll follow up with KCMO school librarian, Rebecca Parker about the escalation of book bans and the chilling effects its having on our local libraries. Than, the Economic Policy Center just did a checkup on the post-COVID...

Two Books: Essential: How the Pandemic Transformed the Long Fight for Worker Justice and Migration As Economic Imperialism

First they were essential, then they were exhausted, then they were enraged. This week on the Heartland Labor Forum, we’ll talk to Jamie McCallum about his new book Essential: How the Pandemic Transformed the Long Fight for Worker Justice then it’s another author, Immanuel Ness who says, the millions that...

What the Oppenheimer Film Missed

Did you see the film Oppenheimer? If so, did you wonder who built the buildings where the Manhattan Project did its work or who cleaned up the radioactive waste or who lived downwind from the Trinity Test? This week’s Heartland Labor Forum will look at what the film left out...

Reggie Thomas – What do Laborers Do? and Jason Roberts: Why the Shortage of Teachers and Other School Personnel?

Reggie Thomas leads Laborers local 264. This week on the Heartland Labor Forum as part of our Labor Leader Series we’ll ask him about the work members of the Laborers union do in construction and elsewhere. Then, America is facing a dangerous and unprecedented level of shortages among teachers and...