Democratic debate to be held after unionized Loyola Marymount workers reach tentative agreement

PLAYA VISTA, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Only seven candidates qualified for Thursday's Democratic debate scheduled to be held at Loyola Marymount University.

Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Andrew Yang and Tom Steyer will be attending.

The debate nearly didn't happen.

All seven candidates had sided with a labor union in the middle of a strike on the university campus and the candidates said they wouldn't cross the picket line.

Missing the debate would have cost them a lot of national exposure.

A tentative contract agreement was reached earlier this week, allowing the debate to proceed as planned.

The chairman of the Democratic National Committee and Sen. Elizabeth Warren were involved in reaching the agreement.

The university was not involved in the negotiation, it was between a private contractor employing food-service workers and their union.

Thursday night's debate will be the sixth matchup and of the last for this year.