This Week’s Democratic Debate Is Back On

A labor dispute at host Loyola Marymount University was tentatively resolved on Tuesday.

Toni L. Sandys/Washington Post/Getty

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

The sixth Democratic debate is back on, thanks to a hastily arranged resolution to a labor dispute that threatened to derail the event at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

A union representing dishwashers, servers, and dining hall workers has been picketing for a contract with food service firm Sodexo since November. All seven candidates who qualified for Thursday’s debate threatened to boycott in solidarity with the workers planning to protest outside the event. The possibility of a pre-holidays debate being canceled seemed possible for several days until the union, Unite Here Local 11, announced Tuesday that it had reached a tentative agreement with Sodexo with the help of Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez.

“Every worker deserves fair wages and benefits,” Perez said in a statement. “That’s why I was proud to help bring all stakeholders to the table, including Unite Here Local 11, Sodexo and Loyola Marymount University to reach a deal that meets their needs and supports workers.”

The agreement, which still needs to be ratified by the union, would last for three years and includes a 25 percent increase in compensation, 50 percent drop in health care costs, and more protections for workers’ job security, according to a statement released by the union.

The lineup for Tuesday’s debate is the smallest one yet, featuring former Vice President Joe Biden, Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), businessman Andrew Yang, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and billionaire Tom Steyer.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate