Heartland Labor Forum

Unions that haven’t gone on strike in years are facing doing so as an increasing number of bosses refuse to bargain in good faith. This week on the Heartland Labor […] The post How to Have a Successful Strike and Should We Get Rid of Taxes on Tips? It’s KKFI’s SUMMER PLEDGE DRIVE appeared first on KKFI .

Two women started Boots on the Ground Midwest on a whim and full of despair.  It’s evolved quickly mobilizing and motivating citizens to protest creeping fascism. We’ll hear their experiences […] The post Who’s Raising Hell in KC? Boots on the Ground and the Kansas City Defender appeared first on KKFI .

We are thrilled to welcome back award-winning novelist Rachel Kushner for a second in-depth interview—this time about her gripping new corporate-surveillance, bad guy spy-thriller, Creation Lake. This is a twisted tale […] The post Rachel Kushner: Novelist of Activism, Revolution and Intrigue and What’s a Workers’ Center? appeared first on KKFI .

The United Electrical, Radio and Machine workers is a union that’s much more than just those occupations. UE as it’s called, has organized thirty thousand graduate workers in the last […] The post What’s a Member-Run Union? Carl Rosen, President of UE – the United Electrical Radio and Machines Workers Union appeared first on KKFI .

KU Labor Historian David Roediger is a scholar of white working-class studies. His new memoir, An Ordinary White; My Anti-Racist Education chronicles growing up in a sundown town and then […] The post Two Books: David Roediger: An Ordinary White: My Antiracist Education and Eric Blanc: We Are the Union: How Worker-to-Worker Organizing Is Revitalizing Labor and Winning Big appeared first on KKFI .

There’s a lot of controversy about Trump’s tariffs for auto. Is it just spectacle, or could they actually lead to more domestic auto production and at what cost? We’ll talk […] The post UAW’s Support of Tariffs and Jeremy Brecher: the Green New Deal from Below appeared first on KKFI .

Trump dumped NIOSH – the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health? We’ll ask if we can save it and why it’s important to workers. Then many unions in the […] The post Can We Save NIOSH? and Labor for Palestine appeared first on KKFI .

Last November Missouri citizens made their voices heard at the ballot box in favor of abortion access and paid sick leave for workers.  Then during the last week of the […] The post Licking Our Wounds: A 2025 Missouri Legislature Wrap-Up appeared first on KKFI .

Americans have many questions these days about government services like the postal service that are under attack. This week on the Heartland Labor Forum we’ll visit with Darcy Wood, President […] The post Labor Leader Series: Darcy Wood and Our Right to Read Is Under Attack appeared first on KKFI .

UAW founder Walter Reuther was famous, his brother Roy wasn’t, but he made important contributions to both the labor and civil rights movements. Roy’s son, Alan joins us this week […] The post Alan Reuther: From Flint to Selma: How Roy Reuther Shaped Labor & Civil Rights in America and Bert Nash Mental Health Workers Organize appeared first on KKFI .

Former Commissioner Martin O’Malley says Social Security could collapse within just a few months. Social Security workers report bedlam at work, and their union leader Everett Kelley says Elon Musk doesn’t just want to cut the SSA workforce - He wants to eliminate Social Security entirely. Join us this week on the Heartland Labor Forum to discuss these issues with the workers who are bearing this...

It’s May Day and this week the Heartland Labor Forum is celebrating International Workers Day with songs to raise the spirit, an interview from 1997 with Studs Terkel on the history of May Day, a tribute to black folk and labor singer John Handcox and who knows what else. Maybe we’ll even come up with the reason why labor day in the US isn’t on May first. Our feature is Safety First with Mary Erio...

What do you do when the head of state comes after your union with 6,000 cops and a license to kill? We’ll get advice from John Dunne who had his […] The post Remembering the British Miners’ Strike after 40 Years with Miner John Dunn appeared first on KKFI .

We see their work everywhere: big cities, small towns, schools, tall and short buildings. These craftsmen are bricklayers and masons. Many can be called artists. This week on the Heartland […] The post Labor Leader Series: Dustin Himes from Bricklayers & Allied Craftsworkers Local 15 and Rep Tobias Schlingensiepen: Fighting Fascism from Germany to KS appeared first on KKFI .

The surest way to defeat a union is to create division within it. Many in management excel at pitting workers against each other, but this week we’ll talk with organizers […] The post How Do We Overcome Internal Division in Unions? and Beneath REI’s Green Sheen: Union Busting, Debt Bondage, and Partnership with Eco-Criminals appeared first on KKFI .

Right after he became President Trump marked another milestone on the trail of broken promises when he cut funding for Haskell Indian Nation’s University in Lawrence, crippling its teaching capacity […] The post Layoffs at Haskell Indian Nations University: Treaty Violation? And Property Tax Reform: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly appeared first on KKFI .

We’ll interview labor historian Jeff Stilley about Kansas City’s greatest labor champion you never heard of — Frank Walsh, labor lawyer, defender of radicals and visionary for future labor law. […] The post Why Has America’s Greatest Labor Progressive: Frank P. Walsh Been Forgotten? and The School District Bond Issue with Dr. Jennifer Collier appeared first on KKFI .

The MO Legislature is at it again – trying to subvert the will of the people.  This week on the Heartland Labor Forum, we’ll talk to Missouri State Reps. Pattie […] The post Will the Missouri Legislature Undo the Will of the Voters? and Former AFL-CIO Organizing Director Stewart Acuff: Love Is Solidarity in Action appeared first on KKFI .

With President Trump’s dismantling of the federal bureaucracy in full swing, led by Elon Musk’s DOGE, federal workers are under siege. But unionized federal workers are fighting back. We’ll talk with leaders […] The post Federal Unions Fight Back appeared first on KKFI .

This week on the Heartland Labor Forum we’ll get a report from last weekend’s Workers Strike Back Conference organizing to win a $25 minimum wage and healthcare for all. Then, […] The post The Workers Strike Back Conference and Julie Greene on Who Built the Panama Canal and Trump’s Bullying appeared first on KKFI .

Union organizer and photojournalist David Bacon joins us to discuss cross-border labor solidarity, the fight for immigrant and domestic workers’ rights, and how grassroots organizing is reshaping the future of […] The post David Bacon on Domestic Workers Organizing and Nancy MacLean: Behind the Mask of Chivalry: The Making of the Second Ku Klux Klan appeared first on KKFI .

Have Trump’s tariffs got you confused?  How will they affect jobs and prices?   We’ll talk to trade expert Lori Wallach, of Rethink Trade. She’s a 30-year veteran of international and […] The post Explaining Tariffs and How They Affect the Working Class and Hidden in Plain Sight: the $8.5 trillion in Untaxed Income of the Rich appeared first on KKFI .

In Auburn New York in 1840 William Freeman, an imprisoned Black teenager, demanded pay for forced labor, l leading to violence. We’ll talk to author Robin Bernstein about the first […] The post Freeman’s Challenge; The Murder That Shook America’s Original Prison for Profit by Robin Bernstein and The KC Campaign to End Gender Violence in the Workplace appeared first on KKFI .

It’s all about chickens and those nuggets that are presumably made from them. We’ll talk to Patrick Dixon about his new book, Nuggets of Gold and then to Alice Driver who […] The post Nuggets of Gold: Processed Chicken and the American Diet by Patrick Dixon and The Life and Death of an American Worker by Alice Driver appeared first on KKFI .

Kansas City building trades unions want area towns to pass Responsible Bidder Ordinances requiring public works contractors to provide good jobs with apprenticeship training and opportunities for continuous employment for […] The post What’s Responsible Bidder Language? and Are There Dire Days Ahead for Labor Under Trump? appeared first on KKFI .