In today’s news and commentaries, nearly 60,000 University of California workers represented by a pair of unions initiate strike, FTC forms Joint Labor Task Force, and DoorDash reaches settlement with New York AG’s Office to pay $16.8 million in restitution for wage theft practice.

Thousands of University of California (UC) healthcare, research, and technical workers went on strike Wednesday morning amid contract negotiations and alleged unfair labor practices. About 37,000 UC service and patient care workers represented by AFSCME Local 3299 began a two-day strike. AFSCME’s contract expired in 2024, and negotiations on a new agreement have been ongoing for the past year. At the same time, roughly 20,000 UC health care, research and technical professionals represented by University Professional and Technical Employees, UPTE-CWA Local 9119, initiated a three-day strike. UPTE’s contract expired at the end of October, and negotiations also remain ongoing for over eight months.

Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson, appointed by President Trump, has directed the FTC to form a Joint Labor Task Force focused on investigating deceptive, unfair, and anticompetitive employer labor practices. The Task Force will target no-poach, non-solicitation, or no-hire agreements; wage-fixing agreements; noncompete agreements; labor-contract termination penalties; labor market monopsonies; gig economy harms; deceptive job advertisements; occupational licensing requirements; and misleading franchise offerings. Aligned with the Trump Administration’s attack on DEI initiatives, the Labor Task Force is also charged with addressing “[c]ollusion or unlawful coordination on DEI metrics.” The initiative signals a bipartisan continuation of the Biden Administration’s focus on labor antitrust harms.

The New York attorney general’s office announced that it has reached a settlement with DoorDash in which the gig economy employer will pay $16.8 million in restitution to Dashers for withholding earned tips. DoorDash announced it ended its wage theft practice in 2019. The restitution is set to be dispersed to as many as 63,000 workers impacted by the wage theft. DoorDash has reached similar settlements of $11.25 million in Illinois and $2.5 million in Washington, D.C.