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
September 23, 2021 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Workers Unite Film Festival and The Alabama Coal Strike
Workers of the World Unite! Let’s go to the movies. It’s the Workers Unite Film Festival, and this week we’ll hear all about it. Then eleven hundred coal miners have been on strike against Warrior Met since April 1. That’s right – over 5 months. We’ll talk to them and find out what's at stake for the miners and their families.
ListenSeptember 16, 2021 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
What Direction for the Post-Trumka AFL-CIO?
The AFL-CIO has a new president, the first woman – Liz Shuler, who got the job after the death of Richard Trumka. But elections are scheduled for next year, and already there are competing visions. So, it’s a great time to discuss the future of the US labor movement. This week, we’ll talk to two labor visionaries: Damon Silvers, director of policy and special counsel for the AFL-CIO and Bill Fletcher, Jr., former Education Director of the AFL-CIO and of Trans-Africa about what is to be done to rebuild the labor movement.
ListenSeptember 9, 2021 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Women, Equal Pay, Access to City Jobs and life support for the ERA
Last year, under pressure from citizens, the city of Kansas City, Missouri conducted a Pay Equity Analysis Report. Did it find that women city workers have equal pay to men? Did it even ask the right questions? Find out this week when we talk to Councilwoman Ryana Parks Shaw and Alice Kitchen. Then, "the Equal Rights Amendment isn’t dead,” says Erica Benson of the Project 28 Missouri. She’s breathing new life into it.
ListenSeptember 4, 2021 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Ed Asner at KKFI in 2013 – a Heartland Labor Forum Special Program
Ed Asner and Judy Ancel (6/28/13) Photo by Mark Manning
ListenSeptember 2, 2021 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
LABOR DAY! A Medley of our Volunteers’ Favorite Labor Books and Songs
It's almost Labor Day, and the volunteers of the Heartland Labor Forum are celebrating by sharing our recommendations of our favorite books about working people. We’ll also share some favorite labor songs and reveal the origins of our theme song, "Step by Step".
ListenAugust 26, 2021 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Steven Greenhouse, Labor Reporter and UAWD – Will Autoworkers Win the Right to Vote?
For years, New York Times labor reporter Steven Greenhouse was one of only a couple left in the US: then, he retired. Turns out, he’s still covering labor, and this week on the Heartland Labor Forum, we’ll talk to him about his book, Beaten Down; Worked Up. Then, we’ll ask Uniting All Workers for Democracy - UAWD - about their efforts to democratize their large industrial union as it recovers from a massive scandal. Tune in Thursday at 6pm, rebroadcast Friday at 5am.
ListenAugust 19, 2021 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Robert Ovetz on Global Class Struggle and Remembering Chuy Negrete
As the workplace changes, so does resistance by workers to increased exploitation. We’ll interview Robert Ovetz on his book on Global Class Struggle: its strategies, tactics and goals. Then, Jesus Chuy Negrete, folklorist, musicologist, radio producer, performer and teacher died in May. This week we’ll play Chuy’s songs about migrant workers and Chicano history and pay tribute to a great activist.
ListenAugust 12, 2021 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Two Labor Leaders Coming and Going: Michael Bell and Jason Roberts
They don’t get much notice, but union officers are important leaders of Kansas City’s working class. This week. we’re catching them coming and going. We’ll talk to Michael Bell, Recording Secretary of Laborers Local 264 who is retiring and to Jason Roberts, new President of the Kansas City Federation of Teachers.
ListenAugust 5, 2021 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
KC Tenants and the People’s Housing Trust
The KC Tenants Union fights to keep people housed amidst the pandemic and end of the eviction moratorium. They expose mega corporate slum lords and defend renters from being displaced. They’ll be on this week to talk about their campaigns for the mobile home residents being expelled for a new jail, for the senior and disabled residents of Gabriel Tower, owned by The Millennia Companies and their platform for a People’s Housing Trust.
ListenJuly 29, 2021 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Medicaid Expansion in Missouri AT LAST!
Last week, the Missouri Supreme Court gave a resounding YES to Medicaid Expansion. This week, we’ll ask the lawyers about the decision and when uninsured Missourians can expect to get coverage. We’ll also share some voices from the huge rally earlier this month in Jefferson City targeting Gov. Parson for his refusal to expand Medicaid.
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