Union leaders say pension-backed housing projects could help Kansas City tackle affordable housing and labor shortages.
Labor
Posted inLabor
Kansas City’s tipped workers could pay the price for World Cup culture clash
KC restaurants are split on adding automatic tips during the World Cup. For tipped workers the stakes are real — and the safety net is thin.
Posted inLabor
Kansas City data centers and AI flip the script on job security
KC’s data center boom is a windfall for construction trades. But the AI powered by those buildings is already reshaping who has job security — and who doesn’t.
Posted inHousing
Working homelessness: When ‘getting a job’ isn’t enough in KC
Increasing numbers of sheltered families have jobs while a growing population is caught in the gap between the wages they earn and the cost of housing. It’s a formula for rising homelessness.
Posted inEconomics
Canary in the corner booth: What restaurant closures reveal about the KC economy
Some legacy restaurants close ahead of World Cup opportunity while others report strong sales. Who can afford a night out reveals a split economy.
Posted inHealth
Wichita nurses win contract after threatening third strike in a year
Union nurses ratified contracts with two Wichita hospitals this week, averting a third strike in less than a year and beating the odds against new unions getting first-time contracts at all. Nearly 1,000 registered nurses at Ascension Via Christi’s St. Francis and St. Joseph hospitals voted to ratify two-year contracts. The union said the deals […]
Posted inEconomics, Elections, Labor
Construction unions back the Royals stadium, while low-wage workers are still demanding more
Takeaways: Kansas City construction worker unions find many things to like about extending the 3/8-cent sales tax to build a new Royals stadium and maintain Arrowhead Stadium — such as new jobs. But service workers who would fill the jobs in and around a new ballpark in the Crossroads Arts District say they’re being left […]
Posted inHealth
‘We’re unionized. You can’t ignore it.’ Wichita nurses vow another strike again if they don’t get a contract
Takeaways: It’s been a year since the nurses at Ascension via Christi St. Joseph Hospital in Wichita voted to unionize. Even longer since St. Francis nurses made the same play. About nine months have passed since they walked off the job the first time to protest what they contend are the hospitals’ spare staffing levels […]
Posted inEducation
School lunch is a food and people business. Wichita USD 259’s challenge is finding either.
Rows of racks in Wichita USD 259’s vast School Service Center on Hydraulic Street in northeast Wichita are the second-to-last stops before distribution to the district’s dozens of schools. In the adjacent industrial kitchen, pizzas roll through conveyor-belt ovens, while enormous mixers pipe mashed potatoes into a machine that seals the food into large plastic […]