Heartland Labor Forum

This week on the Heartland Labor Forum, we’ll have another candidate for Mayor: Steve Miller, a construction lawyer who says it’s all about connections like transportation, infrastructure and neighborhoods. Then, unions are intended to level the playing field with the boss, but what if workers become their own bosses?  We'll talk with UMKC economist Erik Olsen about worker cooperatives, and ask if they might be the future for the organized workplace. Tune in Thursday at 6pm, rebroadcast Friday at 5am.

This week on the Heartland Labor Forum: Medea Benjamin is speaking February 16th for KKFI, we’ll give you a preview and ask her why the U.S. has made Iran one of its primary antagonists, and also, why now Venezuela? Also, how do we build a peace movement to stop an invasion? Then, we continue our interviews with Kansas City Mayoral candidates with Jolie Justus. We ask her about development that’s good for workers and the minimum wage repeal. Tune in Thursday at 6pm, rebroadcast Friday at 5am. [Added March 4, 2019]:  A 51:27 (mm:ss) video of Medea's talk with a transcript is available in the Wikiversity article on "Medea Benjamin on Iran and Saudi Arabia".  A podcast of that talk with the 32 minute question and answer session is available as a session of "Global Roots Radio" on kkfi.org.

This week on the Heartland Labor Forum, we’ll look at what’s in store for workers in the 2019 Missouri and Kansas legislature sessions. Will Missouri continue with unpopular bills that the people will overrule? Will Kansas expand Medicaid or reinstate prevailing wage? We’ll talk to Missouri Rep. Judy Morgan and Kansas Rep. Tom Burroughs.  Thursday at 6pm, rebroadcast Friday at 5am.

Cuba gets demonized all the time by Republicans and Democrats alike, but 95% of Cuban workers voluntarily belong to unions, and women get a year of paid maternity leave. Find out more about Cuban workers this week on the Heartland Labor Forum. Also, Donald Trump is eviscerating policies and legislation that favor working people. We’ll talk to journalist Steven Hill to find out how far labor has been set back by these efforts and if the working class can identify the real "enemy of the people"! Thursday at 6pm, rebroadcast Friday at 5am.

This week on the Heartland Labor Forum, we’ll have another in our series of talks with candidates for Mayor of Kansas City. We want to ask each of them their plan to make KC a city that works for its …

This week on the Heartland Labor Forum, we’ll hear about a labor classic from 1969, The Ink Truck, an award-winning first novel by William Kennedy which recounts the doomed efforts of Bailey, a former newspaper columnist who leads four other workers in a strike against their employer, a newspaper in a medium-sized American city. Then, we’ll look at a strike that starts this week by United Teachers of Los Angeles and find out what these teachers want. Thursday at 6pm, rebroadcast Friday at 5am.

Trump claims his new NAFTA will stop companies from moving to Mexico. This week on the Heartland Labor Forum, we’ll look at what companies like Oreo Cookies gained from their move from Chicago to Monterrey and ask why the AFL-CIO says the new NAFTA doesn’t fix the old NAFTA’s problems. Tune in Thursday at 6pm, rebroadcast Friday at 5am.