Heartland Labor Forum

What is the status of the Green New Deal and the Inflation Reduction Act now that Trump is President? This week on the Heartland Labor Forum we’ll talk jobs, unions and the green transition with the University of Massachusetts Robert Pollin. Then, Daniel Kotzin teaches history at William Jewell College. In April he gave a talk on the racist history of US immigration law as part of the first Constr...

Labor educator and activist Les Leopold has given up on the Democratic Party and written a book called The Billionaires Have Two Parties; We Need a Party of Our Own. He’s calling on unions and the working class to build a labor party starting in the spaces where the Democrats have little to no support, don’t run candidates or lose by double digits. He’ll be on the Heartland Labor Forum this week.

We explore two books. First, New York Times reporter Noam Scheiber’s Mutiny: The Rise and Revolt of the College Educated Working Class who face underemployment, low pay and crippling debt after graduation. Then, Joe Uehlein whose memoir Three Roads takes him from 60’s antiwar protests to the Battle of Seattle, to civil disobedience at the White House against the Keystone pipeline, all the while wo...

The National Labor Relations Board will soon have a Republican majority, meaning that the rollback of Biden-era union protections is imminent. We’ll talk with journalist Robert Iafolla (Eye-uh-foal uh) of Bloomberg Law about what’s next for the NLRB. Then, we’ll talk to DSA’s Elias Garcia about their campaign to get local businesses to sign the Monarch Pledge and say “No” to ICE.

It’s KKFI’s Summer Fund Drive! PLEASE DONATE DURING THE SHOW OR ANYTIME. YOU CAN CALL 888-931-0901 OR GO TO KKFI.ORG . Thursday, on the Heartland Labor Forum: This year’s Missouri legislative session, perhaps more aptly known as the Legislative Session of Misery ended on May 15.  Rep, Emily Weber will give us the scoop on what passed and how you’ll be affected.   Then, we’ll check in with Represen...

We discuss the proposed Kansas City Royals stadium to be built at Crown Center in partnership with Hallmark. The plan seems to be creating more questions than answers, and as part of our recurring coverage of the stadium, we’ll look at the economics of public subsidies for sports venues, as well as whether the city’s sales tax revenue projections on the stadium are a home run or a swing-and-a-miss...

Planning a summer road trip? How about visiting the places where ordinary people made extraordinary change? We’ll talk to Chris Garlock of the Labor Heritage Foundation about their new Labor Landmark Map! Then we’ll visit a nearby landmark – Quindaro, the town founded by Wyandot Indians, abolitionists and free blacks as a free port on the Missouri River. We’ll talk to a descendant of Robert Monroe...

Who doesn’t love a library? Unfortunately, library workers at Mid-Continent Libraries don’t feel much love from their bosses, and they’ve organized a union. We’ll have them and results of their vote on it on tonight’s show. Then, one might think that being head of the Texas AFL-CIO would be a thankless job in such an anti-union state, but Rick Levy made the state’s labor movement broader, bolder,...

Ever heard of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers based in Detroit in the 1970s? There’s a new book called Motown and the Making of Working-Class Revolutionaries . This week on the Heartland Labor Forum, we’ll talk to the authors. Then, the Missouri legislature will short-change schools next year making grants from the Kansas City Public School Foundation more necessary than ever. Find out a...

Pharmacists at the University of Kansas Medical Center in KCK have petitioned for a union election. It’s next week. They wonder why there’s so little room for advancement in their jobs and why the rules leave them without justice on the job. Our feature is Safety First with Mary Erio.

What impact are ICE raids having on immigrant workers and communities in rural Missouri? This week on the Heartland Labor Forum, we’ll talk to University of Michigan Prof. William D. Lopez about his book "Raiding the Heartland.” Then the new Labor Caucus of Missouri legislators is fighting for legislation to support workers and unions. We’ll talk to Rep Adrian Plank. Our feature is Voices from Lab...

There’s been a lot of news lately about the Port Authority and how the Kansas City building trades unions finally got them to agree to require developers that it subsidizes to pay workers decently, but there’s little talk about the cost of economic growth to our schools and libraries who sacrifice tax income to fund development. We’ll talk to teachers about it and ask, should the Plaza be saved at...

A member of the new KC Bus Riders Union says, “We want to show that the buses can serve everyone, not just people who rely on them as a lifeline to get to work.” This week on the Heartland Labor Forum we’ll find out more. Then The International Association of Theatrical and Stage Employees Local 31 members do the set up and take down, scenery, and support work for trade shows, plays and concerts....

Sick of junk fees, phone scams and wasted time with customer service?  We’ll talk with Chad Maisel of the Groundwork Collaborative about the so-called Annoyance Economy that costs us hundreds of billions of dollars annually. Then, two restaurant workers share how they’re organizing for change with the Missouri Workers Center—from fast food to full service. Hear their stories and what’s next for wo...

It’s baseball season, and it’s the 50th anniversary of free agency. This week on the Heartland Labor Forum, we’ll look at one of the most successful unions in American labor history – the Major League Baseball Players Association. We’ll talk with Michael Haupert, economics professor and expert on the business of baseball, about the union and the union’s biggest win – free agency for players. Our f...

The KC Indivisible Social Justice Chorus will raise their voices in song in a preview of their appearance at the Mill Creek NO Kings rally next Saturday. Then, six of every ten food workers in Great Britain make wages that are insufficient to meet their basic needs for food and energy. Now British unions are exposing the causes of declining wages and making hunger a union issue in their campaign:...

This year’s legislative session may leave working people in a state of Misery, their rights assaulted, with fewer public services and less funding for public schools, and their pockets fleeced as the legislature substitutes high sales taxes for the state income tax.   This week on the Heartland Labor we’ll get the latest on what the legislature is doing from Missouri House Representatives Mark Sha...

The Kansas legislature has a month to go and there’s good news and bad for working families. We’ll find out more this week on the Heartland Labor Forum from Jake Lowen, the new Executive Secretary of the Kansas AFL-CIO. Then many Kansas Citians rely on city buses for work. shopping, and doctor visits, while city bus drivers face threatened layoffs and assaults on the job. Our feature is Labor Song...

On March 10, the Leavenworth City Commission is about to give permission for the Core Civic private prison there to reopen as an ICE jail, giving the government over 1000 beds to fill. This week on the Heartland Labor Forum we’ll talk about Core Civic’s shameful record of both prisoner and guard abuse when the prison operated before 2022. We’ll talk to former guards and a former detainee or two an...

PLEDGE DRIVE! – PLEDGE DRIVE! – PLEDGE DRIVE! Organizer and historian Dave Kamper gives an overview of the recent labor upsurge in his new book Whose Got the Power?  Then Missouri legislators are shaping the future of education and thus our communities. If we’re not informed, we won’t be able to protect and strengthen our public schools. We’ll talk with local advocacy group Parents for KC Kids abo...

We’re going to introduce our listeners to a couple of shows from the Labor Radio Podcast Network. The Green and Red podcast did a show about the Greensboro Sit-Ins sixty-four years ago and the power of direct action linking lessons to the resistance to ICE in Minneapolis. Then, we’ll here a few minutes from the podcast The Power at Work asking three labor observers about recent news. Our feature i...

Whether AI will be a glorious revolution for humanity or a dystopian nightmare remains to be seen, but one thing is certain:  Big Tech is all in.  We'll ask the American Prospect’s David Dayen if we’re in an AI bubble that could wreck the economy.  Then, since 1976, El Centro has helped the Latino community thrive. We’ll talk with social worker Maryely Cadena-Zarate about how her work is changed u...

Dockworkers have long been on the progressive forefront supporting racial equality and fighting fascism. This week on the Heartland Labor Forum we’ll talk with Professor Peter Cole about the history of longshore workers and how they’re dealing with creeping fascism in today’s America. Then, Congress has disappeared the Affordable Care Act tax credits. We’ll ask economist John Miller about the mill...

Last fall workers at two Half Priced Books stores organized a union. Now workers at the Westport store have won a first contract. We’ll celebrate with them this week on the Heartland Labor Forum . Then, one of the longest strikes in recent history ended with a judge’s order and a big win for the union. Then management fired everyone and shutdown operations. Yes it’s the Pittsburg Post Gazette, and...

Do you know the union members Bill of Rights? If you are a union member these affect you just in case your union fails to be democratic. Tonight we’ll talk to Josh Soffler from the Association for Union Democracy. Then, is burying a nuclear reactor almost half a mile underground a good idea? This Trumpian project designated for Parsons, Kansas says it will bury its own waste just as deep. We’ll as...