Dem debate in limbo

All seven Democratic candidates who have qualified for the PBS NewsHour/POLITICO Debate at Loyola Marymount University next week threatened on Friday to skip the event, asserting they would not cross the picket line of campus workers locked in a labor dispute.

  Politico

Good on them, and bad on whoever runs Politico's Twitter account for framing Politico's own story like this:

The California Labor Federation, which is made up of 1,200 affiliated unions, had urged the White House contenders to not participate in the debate amid the protests, tweeting: "Every democratic candidate has vowed to fight for working people. It's time to put those words into action."

[...]

UNITE HERE Local 11, a union representing 150 cashiers, cooks, dishwashers and servers at the university, said in a statement that it had not yet reached a resolution in negotiations for a collective bargaining agreement with Sodexo — a global services company that employs the workers and is subcontracted by the university to handle food service operations.

[...]

"The DNC and LMU learned of this issue earlier today, and it is our understanding this matter arose within the last day," Xochitl Hinojosa, the DNC communications director, said in the statement. "While LMU is not a party to the negotiations between Sodexo and Unite Here Local 11, Tom Perez would absolutely not cross a picket line and would never expect our candidates to either."

[...]

UCLA said in a statement it had "agreed to step aside as the site of the debate rather than become a potential distraction during this vitally important time in our country’s history."

Or, you could put pressure on the contractor to settle favorably with the strikers.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 12/17: