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
May 19, 2022 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Kansas Legislative Wrap-up with the Kansas AFL-CIO’s John Nave and Union Leaders Series: Chris Fairbanks – Independence Firefighter
Kansas Legislative Update with John Nave and Union Leader Series with Independence IAFF Chris Fairbanks
ListenMay 12, 2022 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
The Missouri Apprentice Ready Program and Kim Kelly with her new Untold History of American Labor
The Missouri Apprentice Ready Program recruits workers to construction jobs. Then Kim Kelly on her new book: Fight Like Hell! The Untold History of American Labor.
ListenMay 5, 2022 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Solidarity Without Borders – the Partnership of UE and FAT and Ranked Choice Voting
In the early 1990s, just before NAFTA was rammed through Congress, two unions – one in Mexico and one in the U.S. formed a solidarity partnership to organize workers on the jobs that were fleeing to low wage havens south of the border. This week on the Heartland Labor Forum we’ll talk to the leaders from the United Electrical Workers and the Workers’ Authentic Front about their experiences and the importance of international labor solidarity. Then we’ll explain Ranked Choice Voting which will soon be the voters’ choice in Kansas City.
ListenApril 28, 2022 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Remembering the Railway Shopmen’s Strike and What’s the State of Current Rail Negotiations?
In 1922 Railway shopworkers went on strike against wage cuts and union busting in the largest and most violent rail strike of the 20th Century. This week on the Heartland Labor Forum, we’ll mark the centennial of the Railway Shopmen’s Strike then talk about the current rail negotiations that have dragged on for two years with no raise for workers. The carriers still want to one-man crews on a train. Plus Workers Memorial Day and the Starbucks SIP-IN.
ListenApril 21, 2022 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
El Golpe: US Labor, the CIA, and the Coup at Ford Mexico – an Interview with Rob McKenzie
In January 1990 a gang of assassins invaded a Ford assembly plant in Mexico City and opened fire on the assembly line workers killing one and injuring several. The workers had been organizing an independent union. Who hired and paid the thugs who assaulted them? What did it have to do with the AFL-CIO and the CIA, and how it set back unionism in Mexico for thirty years entrenching low wages, is the subject of a new book which we’ll feature on this week’s Heartland Labor Forum.
ListenApril 14, 2022 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
A Profile of Jason Starr of UAW 249 and The Labor Beacon’s New Faces
United Autoworkers Local 249 President Jason Starr and The new Labor Beacon reporting KC labor news, Gaye O’Neill, and Tristen Amezcua-Hogan.
ListenApril 7, 2022 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Woody Guthrie- Songs and Art, Words and Wisdom and SEIU Healthcare and the Health Levy
Nora Guthrie, daughter of America’s great folk singer, Woody Guthrie has released a book called Woody Guthrie: Songs and Art, Words and Wisdom. This week on the Heartland Labor Forum we’ll talk to Nora about her father’s genius. Then, health care workers at University Hospital formerly known as Truman are starting negotiations on a new contract and they want to know of any of the health care levy voted on this week will go to improve the working conditions of these tired workers formerly known as heroes.
ListenMarch 31, 2022 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
New Books: Joe Burns: Class Struggle Unionism & N. Iskander: Migrant Workers in Qatar
We will talk to the authors of two new books: first is Joe Burns with Class Struggle Unionism. He asks if the labor movement is losing ground or gaining traction. He clearly wants more movement in the labor movement. Then, Natasha Iskander asks, “Does Skill Make Us Human?” as she tells the disturbing story of the unhuman treatment of so-called unskilled guest workers building for the World Cup in Qatar.
ListenMarch 24, 2022 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Is the Missouri Legislature Out to Destroy Public Schools?
This week we look into the explosion of bills attacking teachers and dumbing-down education across Missouri. We'll cover bills expanding charter schools, banning critical race theory in favor of teaching fairy tales, bills requiring parental oversight of professionals -- that is, teachers -- and bills calling for censorship of books and thought. We'll get the latest from state reps and a teachers' union leader.
ListenMarch 17, 2022 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Davos Man by Peter Goodman & An Interview with NLRB General Council Jennifer A. Abruzzo
This week, it’s New York Times reporter Peter Goodman on his new book Davos Man: How the Billionaires Devoured the World. Goodman lampoons ultra-rich guys as a voracious uber-species preying on all of us. Then- employers have long used threats and coercion to oppose union organizing campaigns. The NLRB’s top lawyer, Jennifer Abruzzo, is using all the legal tools at her disposal to fight back. After Davos Man Abruzzo will be a welcome ray of hope.
Listen