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.
February 2, 2023 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Rock Chalk Union – Organizing at KU and M-Power – The Multilateral Partnership for Organizing, Worker Empowerment, and Rights
Faculty are organizing at the University of Kansas. What are their issues? Also, the US Department of Labor's new M-POWER international labor rights program.
ListenJanuary 26, 2023 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Busting the Myth of Lazy Youth
Every generation accuses the one behind it of lazyness, no work ethic, going to ruin America, but somehow we survive over the decades. It's time we bust the myth of lazy youth.
ListenJanuary 19, 2023 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Fred Redmond and Bill Lucy on MLK and Rep Jamie Johnson on the MO Leg
AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond and retired AFSCME and civil rights leader Bill Lucy on labor and Martin Luther King. Then we’ll ask Missouri’s freshman legislator Jaime Johnson about the new dress code for women and other threatening bills. Also Know Your Rights with Michael Amash.
ListenJanuary 12, 2023 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Ex-Postal Worker Willa has a Passion for Books and New Rules for Gig Workers
Willa's Books and Vinyl where a former postal worker honors black history and culture, and will the NLRB make it easier for gig workers to become regular employees?
ListenJanuary 5, 2023 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Labor’s 2023 Crystal Ball: Will It Be Good for Working People
Labor radio programmers and podcasters from around the country, from Kansas City and from as far away as England will get out their union made crystal balls and tell us what 2023 will bring for those who work and for the labor movement.
ListenDecember 29, 2022 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Justin Akers Chacon: The Case for Opening th Border and Why Doesn’t the NLRB Cover Ag and Domestice Workers? Might I Have to Do with Race?
The case for open borders and book The Border Crossed Us by Justin Akers Chacon and why does the NLRA exclude agriculture and domestic workers from the right to organize?
ListenDecember 22, 2022 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
The San Francisco Mime Troupe’s Red Carol
An updated and interpreted telling of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol with lots of music and fun.
ListenDecember 15, 2022 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
The Fading of Local For-profit Print Media and Rise of the Non-Profits and Independence Firefighters’ Fight for Health Care
Tonight, on the Heartland Labor Forum: Has your metropolitan newspaper turned into a zombie? Is local news coverage just a fading memory? We’ll look at the corporatization of the media and the rise of nonprofits with the Kansas Reflector and the KC Defender. Then, public sector workers often accept lower wages if they can get better benefits. But lately those good benefits are shrinking, like in Independence where International Association of Firefighters union is fighting to save their health insurance. Our feature is Know Your Rights with Michael Amash. Tune in tonight at 6pm or tomorrow at 5AM on KKFI 90.1 FM or streaming at kkfi.org and archived at heartlandlaborforum.org
ListenDecember 8, 2022 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Jerry Wood of Teamsters Local 955 and Stories from the 1970s of Women in Non-Traditional Jobs with Jenny Agee – Trucker and Teamster Organizer
Teamster mom and son. He's president of Local 955, a warehouse local and she was one of the first women truck drivers 50 years ago. It wasn't easy.
ListenDecember 1, 2022 Local, News & Public Affairs, Podcast
Ellen Cassedy, Working 9 to 5 and The UAW’s First Direct Election for Top Officers
Ellen Cassidy's "Working 9 to 5" chronicles the famous clerical workers organization of the 70s, the union and the movie. Then, what's happening with the UAW's first direct election of top officers?
Listen