What’s the Missouri legislature cookin’ up this session?  Bills are being proposed that would assault people’s rights and attack public education.  This week on the Heartland Labor Forum, we’ll ask […] The post What Are they Cookin’ up This year in Jeff City? and Marijuana Dispensary Workers Organize appeared first on KKFI.

Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez goes on trial this month in New York for drug trafficking. Honduran workers faced repression, corruption and forced migration during his reign. We’ll ask whether […] The post A Dictator Goes on Trial and Hamilton Nolan: The Hammer: Power, Inequality, and the Struggle for the Soul of Labor appeared first on KKFI.

We all remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for his legacy in the civil rights movement. Maybe you know he was shot while supporting a strike of garbage collectors in […] The post Organized Labor and the Civil Rights Movement appeared first on KKFI.

We’ll find out what it’s like to work and support your family as refugees in your own land. We’ll talk to two Palestinians about jobs, wages, and the war. Then […] The post Work Under Occupation and Unions Come Out for Ceasefire in Gaza appeared first on KKFI.

We’ll have a tribute to music, labor and musicians. The Kansas City Latin Jazz Orchestra is a tuition free cultural immersion education and performance non-profit orchestra. We talk with bandleader Pablo […] The post The Work of a Jazz Musician and Some Great Labor Songs appeared first on KKFI.

Is Trump a Fascist? More and more experts are saying “yes he is.” So, what’s a fascist? And how, if Trump wins in November, could working people be hurt by […] The post Is Trump a Fascist? and Kevin Hendrickson of Pipefitters Local 533 appeared first on KKFI.

We’ll talk to journalist Lawrence Tabak, author of Foxconned, on how the Taiwanese company conned former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and how corporations transfer taxpayer money to themselves benefitting consultants, […] The post Foxconned by Lawrence Tabak and The Chevron Deference Case: A Corporate Power Grab? appeared first on KKFI.

This week on the Heartland Labor Forum, we’ve got a rerun of our Thanksgiving show, which we’re betting you missed. Tune in and appreciate the work of our volunteer programmers […] The post The Best of 2023 on the Heartland Labor Forum appeared first on KKFI.

Last January the Heartland Labor Forum volunteers and labor programmers from as far away as England looked in their crystal balls to predict what would happen to workers in 2023. […] The post Labor’s Crystal Ball for 2024 appeared first on KKFI.

Despite a number of attempts by the UAW to organize foreign-owned Southern auto plants, there’s been stiff resistance from the foreign companies, politicians, community, and workers themselves.  This week on […] The post UAW’s Southern Strategy – an Assessment and Nanni Balestrini’s We Want Everything – A Strike Novel appeared first on KKFI.

From the Gilded Age to the 1920s, employers and allies used terrorism to control workplaces and communities. We’ll talk to Chad Pearson, author of Capital’s Terrorists: Klansmen, Lawmen & Employers […] The post Chad Pearson, Capital’s Terrorists: Klansmen, Lawmen & Employers . . . – and – from Prison Guard to Union President Lynn Fields Is Making Prisons Safer for All appeared first on KKFI.

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 […] The post Can Labor Seize the Movement Moment? – and – How Jane McAlevy Transformed the Labor Movement appeared first on KKFI.

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 […] The post Alise Martiny: Woman at the Top – and – Steve Gercone of the Roofers Union appeared first on KKFI.

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 […] The post Best of 2023 on the Heartland Labor Forum appeared first on KKFI.

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. […] The post Teamsters for a Democratic Union: Is It in the Vanguard of Labor? appeared first on KKFI.

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 […] The post Banned but not Forgotten; The State of KCMO School Libraries – and – Challenges and Opportunities in the Midwest Since COVID – EPI appeared first on KKFI.

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 […] The post Amazon Delivers — Bad Faith and What’s in the New Auto Contracts? appeared first on KKFI.

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 post Two Books: Essential: How the Pandemic Transformed the Long Fight for Worker Justice and Migration As Economic Imperialism appeared first on KKFI.

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 […] The post What the Oppenheimer Film Missed appeared first on KKFI.

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 […] The post Reggie Thomas – What do Laborers Do? and Jason Roberts: Why the Shortage of Teachers and Other School Personnel? appeared first on KKFI.

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 […] The post The Lives of Maritime Workers and Does the Jones Act Really Protect Their Jobs? appeared first on KKFI.

When we talk about labor organizing these days, we rarely talk about farm workers, who have been left in the dust in wages working conditions and rights. This week on […] The post When Will Farmworkers Get Labor Justice? and JwJ’s Erika Smiley: The Future We Need; Organizing for a Better Democracy in the 21st Century appeared first on KKFI.

What’s the matter with Kansas Workers Compensation Law? Well, it’s possibly the worst program in the country.  This week on the Heartland Labor Forum we’ll talk to labor lawyer Keith […] The post What’s the Matter with Kansas Workers Comp? and The New McCarthyism appeared first on KKFI.

On June 27th, the Pregnant Worker Fairness Act went into effect with new protections for women workers. This week on the Heartland Labor Forum learn who is covered and what […] The post The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and How to Blow the Whistle on Unsafe Conditions at Work and Not Get Fired appeared first on KKFI.

In July an undocumented laborer working at night without lights fell 12 floors to his death when the elevator malfunctioned. Ever wonder what other immigrant construction workers face each day […] The post The Perils of Working Non-Union and Immigrant and Heartland Women in Trades Need for Childcare appeared first on KKFI.

Is there such a thing as philosophy of labor? Find out this week on the Heartland Labor Forum for a lively discussion with retired AFSCME member Richard Mellor. Then, Harry […] The post Worker Philosophy – Philosophy of Work and Robert Cherny: Harry Bridges; Labor Radical, Labor Legend appeared first on KKFI.

The United Autoworkers, in its first direct election, threw out the caucus that ran the union for decades and elected Shawn Fain President. Now Fain is riding a wave of […] The post Shawn Fein, Bernie Sandeers and UAW 31 President Dontay Wilson on the Auto Negotiations appeared first on KKFI.

When there’s a life-threatening emergency at your house who sends help? It’s a dispatcher. This week on the Heartland Labor Forum we present a day in the life of a […] The post The Life of a Dispatcher and Machinists Leader Scott Brown appeared first on KKFI.

Two books for your summer reading. First long-time labor guru Bill Fletcher Jr’s second novel: The Man Who Changed Colors is a mystery where a shipyard worker falls to his […] The post Summer Reading: Bill Fletcher, Jr. The Man Who Changed Colors and Working Class Giant: The Life of William Z. Foster appeared first on KKFI.

Should the labor movement endorse reproductive justice, including abortion rights, as a working families’ issue?  This week on the Heartland Labor Forum, we’ll ask union women who are leading a […] The post Should the AFL-CIO Endorse the Right to Abortion? and UPS: What Do the Workers Think? appeared first on KKFI.

There’s a growing chorus of workers demanding more democracy in their unions. We talk to leaders of Essential Workers for Democracy – EW4D who have formed the rank & file […] The post Essential Workers for Union Democracy: a Growing Movement and The Ghost Workers Behind AI appeared first on KKFI.

What do Starbucks, and Trader Joes have in common? Right their workers are organizing unions and some with great success. What else do they all have in common? They both […] The post Organizing Starbucks and Trader Joes appeared first on KKFI.

Union busting has been around since the Pharaohs. Today’s “union avoidance” methods may be more sophisticated, but they’re still union busting, and the busters are getting rich off it. We’ll […] The post 21st Century Union Busting and What’s in the Meany Labor Archives? appeared first on KKFI.

As Red State Governors and legislatures ban books and dictate to schools and colleges what they can’t teach, we’ll take a look at the damage to young minds from the […] The post Whitewashing Labor and American History appeared first on KKFI.

The Industrial Workers of the World or IWW is remembered as militant and creative. Its vision was one big union where workers decide what to produce, working conditions, and pay. […] The post Ahmed White: Under the Iron Heel: The Wobblies and the Capitalist War on Radical Workers and Isn’t It Time to Nationalize the Railroads? appeared first on KKFI.

State legislatures including Iowa and Arkansas are rolling back child labor law protections. Ultra conservative groups, including the National Restaurant Association, are pushing bills that allow 14-year-olds to work the […] The post The Return of Child Labor — Again??? appeared first on KKFI.

IT’S PLEDGE DRIVE. PLEASE CALL OR GO ONLINE TO MAKE A PLEDGE Should the slogan “Good Jobs for All” include the disabled?  In Missouri it’s not so clear. This week […] The post Sheltered Workshops and 22¢ an Hour The Fight to Ban the Subminimum Wage appeared first on KKFI.

The Kansas City Labor Beacon is under new ownership – the Kansas City AFL-CIO.  We’ll hear from Labor Beacon editor Tristen Amezcua- Hogan and publisher Abril Negrete about the past, […] The post The New Labor Beacon under KC AFL-CIO Ownership and Labor Leader Profile: United Steelworker District 11 Director Emil Ramirez appeared first on KKFI.

As the largest collective bargaining unit in North America, the National UPS agreement with the Teamsters Union is a classic Labor vs Capital stand-off.   Both sides are heavily dug-in […] The post Teamsters Team Up to Fight UPS appeared first on KKFI.

Wage theft is more common than we think, especially against immigrant workers whose employers often skip out without paying them for their work. This week on the Heartland Labor Forum, […] The post The Fight Against Wage Theft and Jon Carpenter on the Clay County Fair Contracting Ordinance appeared first on KKFI.

We’ll delve into two hot Kansas City – City Council races – the 5th district at-large featuring Darrell Curls and Mike Kelley and in the 1st district Chris Gahagan. We’ve […] The post Candidates in Two Hot KC City Council Races: Darrell Curls and Michael Kelly and Chris Gahagan and Nathan Willett (invited) appeared first on KKFI.