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.
Upcoming Episodes
May 13, 2021 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Long Live Scabby the Rat! and Sarah Lloyd Green: KC early 20th Century Labor Leader
Scabby the Rat, the iconic supersized symbol of anti-union employers across America, has been under attack by Trumpers in the NLRB. Find out whether this defender of workers’ rights can escape the trap and continue to shame the union busters. Then, our two minute profile for labor history month of Sarah Lloyd Green may have whetted your appetite to know what KC was like for working people a century ago. We’ll find out more about her and the 1918 General Strike.
Read MoreRecent Episodes
May 6, 2021 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
A is for Asylum: How We Talk about Immigration and Judy Ancel: The Heart of the Labor Forum
KKFI has been discouraging the use of words that dehumanize people in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement. So what about words like “illegal” and “alien?” This week, we discuss the book A is for Asylum: How We Talk about Immigration. Then, volunteer Tom Gebken interviews our lead producer, Judy Ancel. He calls her “The Heart of the Labor Forum.”
ListenApril 29, 2021 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
May the Earth Have Another Day – Celebrating Earth Day and May Day
Is organized labor up for the fight against climate change? Do climate activists get the importance of transitions to good clean jobs? This week, we celebrate May Day – International Labor Day - and Earth Day with interviews on these key questions with labor and environmental leaders and scholars. We’ll have songs about good jobs and the survival of our planet.
ListenApril 22, 2021 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Jane McAlevey: A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing and the Fight for Democracy
We spend the show with longtime successful organizer Jane McAlevey. We ask her what happened at Amazon, how to defeat the union busters, and what’s the first step a worker here in Kansas City should take if they’re fed up and want a union where they work. McAlevey says, “I’ve spent my life teaching workers how to win.”
ListenApril 15, 2021 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Missouri Legislative Sum-up with Rep. Crystal Quade and Barbara Washington
It’s the last month of this year’s legislative session in Missouri. We’ll talk to Minority Leader Crystal Quade and Senator Barbara Washington about Medicaid Expansion, charter school growth, infrastructure, COVID relief funds, and, of course, the usual attacks on unions. Tune in Thursday at 6pm, rebroadcast Friday at 5am.
ListenApril 8, 2021 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Toni Gilpin, The Long Deep Grudge and Organizing Google
This week, we’ll focus on radical unions. First, we’ll talk to Toni Gilpin about her new book The Long Deep Grudge: A Story of Big Capital, Radical Labor, and Class War in the American Heartland. Then, workers at Google are forming the Alphabet Workers Union, or AWU, organizing regular and contract employees across Google’s vast empire. They say they will fight for better jobs and to make Google an ethical company.
ListenApril 1, 2021 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Organizing the Lawrence Journal-World & How the Ultra-Rich Profit from Racial Injustice
Reporters at the Lawrence Journal-World have formed a union. In response, the bosses have hired one of the most expensive anti-labor law firms in the country to handle negotiations. This week, we'll speak to the reporters union representative, Shannon Duffy, of the United Media Guild and one of the reporters about their fight for a first contract. Then, ever wonder what the super-rich get from perpetuating racism? We’ll talk to Jim Freeman about his book, Rich Thanks to Racism.
ListenMarch 25, 2021 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Charter Schools: Good or Bad for Teachers/Kids/Education?
As the legislature considers expanding charter schools, we will look at the pros and cons of charters. Will they expand beyond St. Louis and Kansas City? What’s their record in academic achievement? Are they good for minority kids? Are they good for teachers? Will they lead to the privatization of public education?
ListenMarch 18, 2021 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
The Kansas City Earnings Tax Election & Lessons from the Last Stand of the Steelworkers in Homestead, PA
Judy Morgan interviews Tammy Queen, the Kansas City Missouri Finance Director about the KCMO earnings tax renewal. She ask how much our sales and property taxes will rise if it’s defeated in the April 6th vote. Then, Mike Stout, author of The Homestead Steel Mill: The Final Ten Years, returns to tell us how to give your union a check-up to see if it’s healthy.
ListenMarch 11, 2021 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
What Difference Does A Union Make & Organizing Amazon in Alabama
We ask “What difference does a union make?” Prof. Mark Anner talked to union and non-union banana workers in Guatemala, we’ll talk to him. Then - is it David against Goliath? That's what people are calling the effort to unionize the Amazon Warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama. Workers are voting until March 29--hear about how it's going Thursday at 6:00 p.m., rebroadcast Friday at 5:00 a.m
ListenMarch 4, 2021 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Anne Feeney — A Musical Remembrance
Anne Feeney was the most celebrated singer song writer of the labor movement for the last forty years. This week on the Heartland Labor Forum, we’ll celebrate her life with stories about Anne and her music.
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