The final Democratic presidential debate of 2019 is back on after a labor dispute threatened to cancel the Los Angeles event.
The Democratic National Committee announced Tuesday the debate would proceed as planned Thursday, after the party stepped in to help arrange a settlement to a labor dispute that threatened the forum.
All seven of the candidates who qualified for the debate threatened to boycott the forum if it meant crossing a picket line. A union threatened to continue picketing about its failure to reach a collective bargaining agreement with food service company Sodexo.
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Fast facts about the debate:
- When: Thursday, Dec. 19, 2019, 9 p.m. EST
- Where: Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles
- Who's in: Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren; Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders; former Vice President Joe Biden; Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana; Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar; environmental activist Tom Steyer; businessman Andrew Yang.
- How to watch: CNN is airing the debate live. PBS NewsHour is partnering with Politico to produce it.
- Moderators: Judy Woodruff, Tim Alberta, Amna Nawaz and Yamiche Alcindor.
The dispute was between Sodexo, a food services contractor on the private university’s westside campus, and Unite Here Local 11, which represents about 150 campus employees.
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Unite Here Local 11 said food services workers had reached a tentative agreement for a three-year contract with Sodexo for “a 25% increase in compensation, a 50% drop in healthcare costs, and increases [in] workers’ job security.” Many of the workers previously made less than $15 an hour.
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The union credited Tom Perez, the Democratic National Committee chairman and former U.S. labor secretary, for helping end the dispute.
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