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SHARMINI PERIES, EXEC. PRODUCER, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I’m Sharmini Peries, coming to you from Baltimore.

The urgency of the climate change crisis has been ripping across the world, culminating in catastrophic climate disasters such as a Superstorm Sandy, Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, Katrina in New Orleans. These are some of the symptoms of the problem. This week, the IPC see also underlined the urgency of global warming crisis in a synthesis report sent to nation-states prior to the UN climate summit taking place in late September in New York City.

On this Labor Day, however, we are challenged by how do we rebuild the economy that is still sluggish after the economic crisis and tackle climate change both at the same time. Climate activist Bill McKibben in a Rolling Stone article coined the slogan “CLIMATE/JOBS. TWO CRISES, ONE SOLUTION”. Is that possible? How do we reorganize our economy to counter the climate change crises?

To discuss this, we have two panelists joining us from New York City today.

May Boeve. May is the executive director of 350.org, an international climate change campaign. She is also coauthor of Fight Global Warming Now.

Also joining us from New York City is Bruce Hamilton. Bruce is vice president of the Amalgamated Transit Union, the largest union that represents public transit workers in North America and the first U.S. union to join the fight against the Keystone XL Pipeline.

Thank you both for joining us.

BRUCE HAMILTON, INTERNATIONAL VP, AMALGAMATED TRANSIT UNION: Good to be here.

PERIES: So let me start with you, Bruce. This debate is really about developing new jobs, transitioning old jobs, so that we reduce carbon emissions. Then why are some of the unions so slow on the take?

HAMILTON: Why are some unions so slow on the take? Internationally, labor unions have been on the forefront of the fight against climate change for many years, for decades. U.S. unions have maybe been a little bit slow to catch on, but the fact is we are catching on. And the big climate march that’s coming up to support a treaty at the UN next month will be joined by about 75 labor organizations. And the numbers are growing every day. So labor unions in the U.S. may have been sort of behind the unions internationally, but unions have for a long time recognized that climate change is the number-one issue really facing labor. It’s the biggest issue that labor has ever faced. And it’s also–labor provides the solution to climate change.