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.
Jen Zaman Dream of an engineer. She’s J Zed–presenter of Mind The Gap, Saturdays 12AM GMT/6PM CST. Music/art lover, proud wife and fur-mom, and aunt to a French teen.
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.
Recent Episodes
July 22, 2021 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Unified Government of Wyandotte County KCK Mayor/CEO Candidate Forum & Voices from the Frito-Lay Picket Line
Wyandotte County is electing a new mayor and there are a lot of contenders for the job. This week, we’ll have highlights from this week’s candidate forum. Then, we’ll have voices from the picket line at Frito Lay in Topeka.
ListenJuly 15, 2021 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
What’s the Matter with Thomas Frank?
Thomas Frank, author of What’s the Matter with Kansas, Listen Liberal, and Pity the Billionaire is in town this month visiting his Dad. We’ll ask him, “What’s the matter now, Tom?” We’ll get his take on populism, the Democrats and what the Wuhan lab leak hypothesis could mean for our trust in science. Also, attorney Michael Amash will help you Know Your Rights.
ListenJuly 8, 2021 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
The Latest Scam Scare: Critical Race Theory
In the past 6 months, Critical Race Theory has been at the front of a media storm of fear and misinformation about the role of racism in our history. This week, we’ll clear up these misconceptions and ask education expert Dr. Denisha Jones what Critical Race Theory is, and what’s behind the campaign to force educators to teach our children patriotic myths rather than history. Then, we will have a discussion with local teachers about their thoughts on the Missouri bill aimed at dictating what they may and may not teach.
ListenJuly 1, 2021 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Are One-Man Trains Comin’ Down the Track? And Help Wanted: Heartland Labor Forum Volunteers
First it was five, then it was three, then two, and now the railroad companies want only one worker running an entire train. If they get their way, those one-man trains will be barreling through Kansas City’s numerous rail lines and yards and on across the nation. Find out more this week on the Heartland Labor Forum. Then, meet the crew that drives the Heartland Labor Forum. Want to join us? Find out how.
ListenJune 24, 2021 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Jeremy Brecher’s Updated ‘Strike’
Jeremy Brecher has written fifteen books on labor and social movements. His best seller, Strike, originally written in 1972, was just updated for its 50th anniversary. We’ll interview him this week. Find out about mass strikes in the US from the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 to recent strikes of teachers and fast food workers, and learn what was left out of your history class and why it’s important. Thursday at 6pm, rebroadcast Friday at 5am.
ListenJune 17, 2021 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Two Women Labor Leaders: Alise Martiny and Antoinette Robinson
When you think of labor leaders, think women. This week, we’ll profile two local women leaders. Alise Martiny leads the KC Building Trades. She’s making sure the airport gets done right. She also knows first-hand the challenges women in construction face on the job. We then flip to the president of the Postal Workers KCMO local, Toni Robinson. She has been guiding her members through the pandemic and the stresses of management speed-ups and cutbacks.
ListenJune 10, 2021 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Dan McCrory, How Capitalism Killed the Middle Class and Rigged the System and New AFSCME Local 500 President Reginald Silvers
Once upon a time, you could work for one company your whole adult life, you could make a decent living, and you could buy your piece of the American Dream. Not any more, says Dan McCrory, who started at the phone company in 1973 and has written Capitalism Killed the Middle Class; 25 Ways the System is Rigged Against You. We’ll find out how Ma Bell killed Dan’s dream and which of the twenty-five is the worst for the working class. Then, AFSCME Local 500 which represents city workers in KCMO has a new president, Reginald Silvers. We’ll find out about him and his plans for city workers on tonight’s show.
ListenJune 3, 2021 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
How We Failed Essential Workers
As we reopen after a year of COVID, what’s happening to the so-called heroes who do essential work? This week on the Heartland Labor Forum, we’ll look at how we failed essential workers, whether we’re still failing them, and what would have been a better approach.
ListenMay 27, 2021 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Missouri’s School Voucher Problem & Eric Lotke: Union Made
The attack on public education is nothing new, but recent legislation coming out of the Missouri Legislature has public school teachers fighting back. This week, we will talk to Jess Piper, a teacher, about the school voucher program and its impact on Missouri education. Then, novelist Eric Lotke tells us about his new book – Union Made. It’s a modern-day love story set during an organizing campaign in a big box store and the unlikely romance between a union organizer and an accountant who works for a sleazy corporate raider. Will love or money win?
ListenMay 20, 2021 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
The Jobs Guarantee: Is Full Employment Possible?
After over a year of the pandemic and its resulting economic ruin, and as politicians now debate when to kick people off unemployment, isn’t it time to revisit the idea of full employment? This week on the Heartland Labor Forum, we’ll air a forum on labor and a jobs guarantee and hear how the promise of a decent job for all could solve so many of our problems. Tune in Thursday at 6pm, rebroadcast Friday at 5am.
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