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.
December 7, 2023 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Can Labor Seize the Movement Moment? – and – How Jane McAlevy Transformed the Labor Movement
We’ll talk about organizing and labor’s future with New Yorker writer Eleni Schirmer who thinks labor guru Jane McAlevey has transformed the labor movement and then with former ILWU organizing director Pete Olney who in April with Rand Wilson wrote a prophetic piece “Can Labor Seize the Movement Moment.” Tune in Thursday at 6pm or Friday at 5am to find out if the stars are aligned for a resurgence of labor and the working class. Also Safety First with Mary Erio.
ListenNovember 30, 2023 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
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 life is often unbearably hot or cold and almost always dangerous. Steve Gercone came down off of a roof to become Business Manager of Roofers Local 20. Why become a roofer and what difference does it make to hire a union roofer? Also Mark Galus with Labor Song of the Month.
ListenNovember 23, 2023 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Best of 2023 on the Heartland Labor Forum
It’s Thanksgiving and we thought it would give us an opportunity to appreciate the work of our volunteer programmers on the Heartland Labor Forum throughout 2023 by playing clips of some of our best shows and as a kind of review of labor highlights from the year. Our volunteer Mark Galus has nobly sacrificed his Thanksgiving week to review past shows and make the selection. We want to thank him too and offer him a symbolic plate of union produced turkey to gobble up.
ListenNovember 16, 2023 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
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, and they will share their inspiration and belief that TDU is the vanguard of today’s labor movement! Also, another segment of Know Your Rights with Michael Amash.
ListenNovember 9, 2023 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
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 economic health of the Midwest and found it to be sickly, especially in regard to minority unemployment, unionization rates and lack of employer policies like sick leave. Get the report. Also, Remember Our Struggle with Ariana.
ListenNovember 2, 2023 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Amazon Delivers — Bad Faith and What’s in the New Auto Contracts?
Amazon is a serial labor law violator. In fact, there is a veritable river of decisions holding the company guilty of violating its workers rights, but last we checked Amazon is getting away with it. This week on the Heartland Labor Forum we’ll look at the lengths to which Amazon will go to keep the union out. Then, the end of the UAW strikes is in sight. President Shawn Fain this week announced a settlement with the last of the Big Three: General Motors. We’ll talk to rank and filers from Ford and GM about it. Also Safety First with Mary Erio.
ListenOctober 26, 2023 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
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 the world’s migrant laborers send home to sustain their families is a drop in the bucket compared to the need for development capital. Indeed, in his new book Migration As Economic Imperialism, he shows how migrants and their countries are increasingly fleeced of by big corporations. Also, Mark Gruenberg with Washington Window.
ListenOctober 19, 2023 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
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 and then talk to scholar Steve Cohn about the historical context of nuclear energy, the concerns about it, and why organized labor should care about it. Also Know Your Rights with Michael Amash.
ListenOctober 12, 2023 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
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 school staff in our preK-12th grade public education system. They are here today and gone tomorrow. We’ll ask KC Teachers Union President Jason Roberts why and what needs to be done. Also, another episode of Remember Our Struggle with Ariana Blockmon.
ListenOctober 5, 2023 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
The Lives of Maritime Workers and Does the Jones Act Really Protect Their Jobs?
We used to call them sailors. Now they’re seafarers who work the ships that transport goods around the world. From the days of mutinies and striking the sails to today they’ve faced brutal working conditions. This week on the Heartland Labor Forum we’ll talk with Samantha Levens, an inspector for the International Transport Workers Federation, about how it protects the human rights of maritime workers throughout our global supply chain. Then, we’ll talk about the Jones Act which aims to protect the jobs of maritime workers. Our feature is Safety First with Mary Erio.
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