The International Labor Communications Association, the professional organization of labor communicators in North America, has awarded the Heartland Labor Forum first prize in its annual Media Awards competition. The Heartland Labor Forum won for its production Canary in the Mine ; Heartland Labor Forum Goes to New Orleans which aired on KKFI 90.1FM Kansas City Community Radio on December 20, 2008. The Forum is Kansas City's only radio program about the workplace and labor.

The winning show was produced by Jeff Humfeld, a member of the Carpenters Local 61, Molly Madden, a member of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1287, and Judy Ancel, director of UMKC's Institute for Labor Studies. In October 2008 ILCA held its biannual convention in New Orleans and unleashed dozens of labor journalists to uncover buried and ignored stories of working people. The site is neworleanslabormedia.org

Canary in a Coal Mine likens the workforce in New Orleans to canaries carried into 19th century mines whose death warned miners of dangerous gases. The program portrays a city which fails to restore basic services for workers so they can return and work with dignity Jeff Humfeld explores the failure to reopen public housing and the struggle of workers for housing. Molly Madden asks what happened to the transit system which used to provide decent jobs for its drivers and mechanics and a way to work for many citizens. Judy Ancel looks at workforce restructuring into what one guest calls disposable workers - immigrant labor stripped of all rights. Although the show portrays post-Katrina New Orleans to be as alarming as a dead canary, it also shows the lively spirit of working people in struggle against disaster capitalism.

The International Labor Communications Association is made up of national, regional, and local union publications and media productions affiliated with the AFL-CIO and the CLC, as well as associate members not affiliated with those bodies. The ILCA's several hundred members produce publications with a total circulation in the tens of millions. For more information about the contest, go to www.ilcaonline.org

The Heartland Labor Forum has won ILCA Media Awards at least five times since 1989.

The Heartland Labor Forum is a weekly radio show on KKFI 90.1 Community Radio in Kansas City. It is coordinated by of The Institute for Labor Studies and produced by volunteers from Kansas City area unions and unorganized workplaces. You can listen to Canary in the Mine and other HLF programs at heartlandlaborforum.org and also find a prinatable copy of this release.

Judy Ancel, Director
The Institute for Labor Studies
UMKC 211 Haag Hall
5100 Rockhill Road
Kansas City, MO 64110

816-235-1470

fax: 816-235-2834

web: www.umkc.edu/labor-edu

a joint program of The University of Missouri-Kansas City and Longview Community College