Local • News & Public Affairs • Podcast
Heartland Labor Forum is Kansas City's only program about the workplace. It is produced by and for our working people. We have been agitating on the air since 1989. Find out who is busting unions and who is fighting back. We are a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network #laborradiopod
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The Team
Heartland Labor Forum Programmers
The Heartland Labor Forum is produced by a group of volunteers who are labor and community activists who believe in workplace democracy, workers rights, and economic justice. We're the only show in Kansas City that focuses on working people: who is fighting on their side and who is not, what they need to know about the economy. We seek to educate and inspire.
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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. HLF is produced by a diverse group of working people. We have been agitating for the rights of working people on the KKFI airwaves since 1989.
Find out about labor struggles and strikes, organizing in Kansas City, global sweatshops, and how the economy is working from the point of view of working people. Listen to our monthly features: Know Your Rights, Safety First, Remember Our Struggle, and Washington Window on Workers. Heartland Labor Forum has won the International Labor Communications Association first prize for radio several times. We are members of the Labor Radio Podcast Network #laborradiopod. Other media have plenty of business news of, by, and for the 1%; HLF is for the rest of us.
Find our schedule of upcoming shows and our archive at www.heartlandlaborforum.org.
Feature Editors
- Michael Amash does Know Your Rights once a month. He is with the Blake & Uhlig labor law firm.
- Mark Gruenberg is on once a month with Washington Window on Workers. He is a full-time labor journalist with PAI-Press Associates Inc. which provides news to unions and labor publications.
- Mark Galus does Labor Song of the Month when there is a fifth Thursday.
- Ariana Eakle does Remember Our Struggle about labor history.
Upcoming Episodes
June 8, 2023 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
The New Labor Beacon under KC AFL-CIO Ownership and Labor Leader Profile: United Steelworker District 11 Director Emil Ramirez,
The Kansas City Labor Beacon is under new ownership - the Kansas City AFL-CIO. We’ll hear from Labor Beacon editor Tristen Amezcua- Hogan and publisher Abril Negrete about the past, present, and future of the paper. Then, in our continuing Labor Leader Series, we’ll talk to Steelworkers District 11 Director Emil Ramirez about his almost forty years as a union leader starting as a pipefitter for the gas company in Topeka. We’ll ask about his history and his vision for the future of the labor movement.
Read MoreJune 1, 2023 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Teamsters Team Up to Fight UPS
As the largest collective bargaining unit in North America, the National UPS agreement with the Teamsters Union is a classic Labor vs Capital stand-off. Both sides are heavily dug-in and well-fortified, the clock is ticking toward the July 31, expiration. Tune in Thursday to the Heartland Labor Forum to hear directly from the people who do the work. The ramifications of this agreement will set the stage for working class people throughout America.
ListenMay 25, 2023 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
The Fight Against Wage Theft and Jon Carpenter on the Clay County Fair Contracting Ordinance
Wage theft is more common than we think, especially against immigrant workers whose employers often skip out without paying them for their work. This week on the Heartland Labor Forum, we talk to Rebecca Berke Galemba about her new book Laboring for Justice. Then Clay County recently passed a “responsible bidder” ordinance covering public works projects. It aims to protect workers against labor rights violations. Commissioner Jon Carpenter spearheaded passage of the ordinance, the first of its kind in the metro area. He’ll be on the show. Also Washington Window with Mark Gruenberg
ListenMay 18, 2023 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Candidates in Two Hot KC City Council Races: Darrell Curls and Michael Kelly and Chris Gahagan and Nathan Willett (invited)
We’ll delve into two hot Kansas City - City Council races – the 5th district at-large featuring Darrell Curls and Mike Kelley and in the 1st district Chris Gahagan. We’ve invited his opponent Nathan Willett, but have had no response. We’ll talk to them about topics ranging from workers’ rights to the downtown baseball stadium Also Know Your Rights with Michael Amash.
ListenMay 11, 2023 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Robert Pollin: Just Transitions to a Green Economy and New Stadium: Who Will Pay? Who will Benefit?
Robert Pollin what it will cost as we phase out the fossil fuel industry to provide a just transition for fossil fuel workers into other jobs without major losses in their standard of living? He argues that the choice is not unemployment or extinction. A just transition is quite affordable. Then, Stand Up KC workers are pressuring the City and County to demand strong community benefits agreements if they let the Royals move downtown. We’ll ask what benefits a new stadium could bring to Kansas City’s workers and at what cost? Also, Remember Our Struggle with Ariana Blockmon.
ListenMay 4, 2023 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten with Local 691’s Jason Roberts on the Attack on Teachers and Whitewashing of Education
“We don’t trust teachers to teach, we’re banning books, we’re doing educational gag orders, but now because of the politics, we trust them to carry a loaded firearm.” So says the American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten. We’ll talk about gun violence and attacks on public education with her and with Jason Roberts, President of the KC Federation of Teachers and School-Related Personnel, Local 691. Also Safety First with Mary Erio.
ListenApril 27, 2023 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Inside the Sewing Lab Apprenticeship Program and Traveling Musicians Local 1000
There’s an apprenticeship program for people who want to find work in the industrial sewing and garment trades. Indeed, Kansas City's Sewing Labs offers the only apprenticeship program in sewing in the United States. We’ll visit it this week on the Heartland Labor Forum. Then there’s a union for traveling musicians, it provides pensions and insurance for both the musician and their instruments. It’s Musicians Local 1000 and we’ll talk to its President, Aaron Fowler. Our feature is Washington Window with Mark Gruenberg. It’s about Biden’s new Labor Secretary appointee: Julie Su.
ListenApril 20, 2023 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
What Happens When Work Disappears? and Management Rights vs Workers
We take a ride on the bad bills clown car through Kansas and Missouri. Get on board to find out what’s happening in the legislatures. Bills are being proposed that would assault people’s rights, attack public education, defund public libraries, weaken children’s vaccination rates, and decimate unemployment benefits. We’ll get the latest from Kansas Rep. Rui Xu and Missouri Rep. Eric Woods. Our feature is Remember Our Struggle with Ariana Blockmon. Also Know Your Rights with Michael Amash.
ListenApril 13, 2023 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Riding the Bad Bills’ Clown Car through Kansas and Missouri
We’ll be riding the bad bills clown car through Kansas and Missouri. Get on board to find out what’s happening in the legislatures. Bills are being proposed that would assault people’s rights, attack public education, defund public libraries, weaken children’s vaccination rates, and decimate unemployment benefits. We’ll get the latest from Kansas Rep. Rui Xu and Missouri Rep. Eric Woods. Our feature is Remember Our Struggle with Ariana Blockmon.
ListenApril 6, 2023 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Labor’s Friday Folklorist, Saul Schniderman
Meet Saul Schniderman American labor’s culture maven, founder of the Great labor Arts Exchange, assembler of the national inventory of American labor landmarks, author of the Friday Labor Folklore newsletter, and the guy who found the house in Maryland where Mother Jones died in 1930. We’ll ask Saul about all that and why what our vast labor heritage means to workers today. Thursday at 6pm, rebroadcast Friday at 5am.
ListenMarch 30, 2023 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Derailed in Ohio! What About Kansas City? What’s Coming Thru A Rail Near You?
Did any of you listeners wonder whether the Ohio rail derailment could happen here? Do we have bomb trains coming through KC? On the show we’ll find out from the experts: the rail workers who strive to keep us safe. Then we’ll ask why we can’t improve the antiquated rail braking systems on our trains with the modern ECP system. Also, labor song of the month with Mark Galus.
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