Will Howard knows exactly why bus drivers in Kansas City are stepping away from the steering wheel. “We just had an 18-year veteran say they can’t do it anymore,” said Howard, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1287, the operator union representing bus drivers in Kansas City. “She’s working at the water department now.” Since […]
Mili Mansaray
Mili Mansaray is The Beacon’s former housing and labor reporter and began covering the beat in 2022. She’s documented the concentration of housing ownership by corporate interests and explored challenges to Kansas City’s homeless shelter capacity. She received training through the Solutions Journalism Network’s labor cohort. She has a bachelor’s degree in digital journalism and Africana studies from New York University. She also studied abroad in Argentina. She was a business reporting intern for the Dow Jones News Fund. She was an audio intern for The Urban Scene with Don Frierson on WGCV 105.1 in Columbia, South Carolina. She has lived in Kansas City since 2022.
Posted inLabor
The Sewing Labs apprenticeship program opens pathways for KC residents
Brooklin Dingley knew from the time she was a child that she wanted to work in the fashion industry. She just had to find the path to get there. As the oldest of seven siblings in a family with a limited income, college wasn’t a realistic option. But Dingley, 19, found another route. She recently […]
Posted inCivic Engagement
Black woman who escaped abductor’s basement affirms problem of missing Black women in Kansas City
On Oct. 7, a terrified 22-year-old Black woman escaped from a home in Excelsior Springs. She told police she had been locked up there for about a month, after being abducted from Prospect Avenue in Kansas City by a man who lives in the home. The man, Timothy M. Haslett Jr., 39, is in custody […]
Posted inHousing, Local Government
KC Tenants announces sister organization focused on building political power
Since its creation in 2019, KC Tenants has drafted a Tenants Bill of Rights and secured its passage through the City Council. The group has successfully lobbied for the right of people faced with eviction to be represented by a lawyer. Its members fought against evictions in the pandemic and opposed development deals that give […]
Posted inHousing, Local Government
Zero KC wants to end houselessness in five years but will require more commitment from leaders
In her five years of helping people who struggle in Kansas City, Alina Heart has come to understand many of the factors contributing to a sharp rise in houselessness. The end of COVID-19 relief funds and eviction moratoriums, in combination with rising inflation, has sent many people over the threshold, said Heart, who volunteers with […]
Posted inEconomics, Labor
Rideshare drivers in Kansas City’s gig market want more protections from companies
April Shabazz began driving for Uber full time this summer. The job wasn’t new for her. Rideshare driving had been her side gig for three years, along with work as a tax preparer. Shabazz, a member of Stand Up KC and the Missouri Workers Center, likes Uber’s flexible schedule. It enables her to work around […]
Posted inLabor, LEA EN ESPAÑOL
A pesar de la tarifa gratuita del transporte público, muchos trabajadores que usan RideKC enfrentan dificultades a lo largo de sus rutas diarias.
Esta historia fue traducida por Claudia Yaujar-Amaro. Esta historia también está disponible en ingles. Lea aquí. De lunes a viernes, Melissa Douds toma el autobús de la calle 35 a las 5:48 a.m. para llegar a su trabajo en el Centro de Convenciones Bartle Hall. Comenzando en la parada de Armour y Gillham en el parque […]
Posted inEconomics, Labor
The fight for a living wage in Kansas City no longer stops at $15 an hour
For years, Kansas City workers and organizers have fought to increase the city’s minimum wage to $15 an hour. The demand was front and center recently when workers at the Taco Bell fast-food restaurant on Wornall Road in Kansas City’s Waldo neighborhood held a walkout over claims of poor working conditions and low wages. “We […]
Posted inLocal Government
Kansas City needs to become more walkable. Here’s how that can happen
Ira Boydston speaks frankly about the prospects of walking with his children to their elementary school in Kansas City’s Red Bridge neighborhood. “It’s across Red Bridge Road, which can suck to try to get across it,” Boydston said. (Boydston is a Beacon community engagement representative. View a program description here.) “It could be very challenging, especially […]
Posted inLabor
‘Taco hell’: KC Taco Bell workers walk out over Labor Day
Three days before Labor Day, the holiday honoring American workers, employees at the Taco Bell fast-food restaurant in Kansas City’s Waldo neighborhood walked off the job in the middle of the lunch hour. The four shift workers walked into the embrace of dozens of protesters clad in bright red shirts reading Stand Up KC. The […]