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The US labour watchdog froze two cases against Apple days after Donald Trump nominated an attorney who represents the tech group to be the agency’s top legal official.
The National Labor Relations Board filed multiple complaints against the iPhone maker last 12 months alleging it intervened against worker attempts to organise, but abruptly pulled back from two of the cases late last week, in accordance with documents seen by the Financial Times.
Trump last week nominated Crystal Carey, a partner at Morgan Lewis & Bockius, to be the NLRB’s general counsel. She is listed within the agency’s records as an attorney acting in Apple’s defence in each cases against the Silicon Valley tech group.
Apple and the NLRB declined to comment. Carey stays an worker of Morgan Lewis pending confirmation by the US Senate, and the law firm didn’t reply to requests for comment. The White House didn’t reply to a request for comment.
Morgan Lewis, which specialises in representing management in labour disputes, has also acted for Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Amazon of their challenges against the agency.
Carey’s nomination comes as Trump seeks to tighten his control of independent federal agencies, stoking concerns his administration is eroding essential democratic guardrails and institutions.
Earlier this 12 months Trump fired Democratic NLRB board member Gwynne Wilcox and the agency’s general counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo. Wilcox has appealed against the move, claiming it was illegal.
The NLRB oversees US labour disputes, with individuals filing petitions against corporations to its regional offices. If the watchdog determines that motion ought to be taken, it brings charges, that are then adjudicated by administrative law judges. Regional NLRB offices can withdraw complaints before or after they’re dropped at hearings.
Janneke Parrish and Cher Scarlett were two of leading figures of the 2021 ‘AppleToo’ movement, an worker backlash against the iPhone maker over its handling of wage discrimination and harassment claims. Each women filed complaints with the NLRB after leaving the corporate, claiming they were sacked due to their labour organising efforts.
The agency backed their allegations when it brought complaints against Apple in 2024, accusing the corporate of violating federal labour laws. It said the iPhone maker had interfered with discussions about pay equity and that Scarlett faced constructive dismissal for advocating for workplace changes.
Apple has strongly disagreed with the claims, saying it has “all the time respected our employees rights to debate their wages, hours and dealing conditions and that is included in our business conduct policy, which all employees are trained on annually”.
The group also made several changes following the AppleToo movement, including the removal of worker gagging clauses related to workplace harassment in 2022.
Hearings before an administrative law judge had been scheduled for April and June in Parrish and Scarlett’s cases, respectively. However the NLRB late last week informed them the trials needed to be postponed indefinitely pending a legal review by the agency’s head office.
The cases, which were brought by the Oakland, California NLRB office, might be resubmitted to the NLRB’s ‘division of recommendation’, which assesses and offers guidance on cases which will address complex or novel legal theories.
A 3rd former Apple worker with an NLRB grievance against the corporate, Ashley Gjøvik, said her case remained on course for a hearing in August.
Parrish said Carey’s prior representation of Apple in her case made her “extremely doubtful” that it will receive fair treatment.
“I fear for the longer term of staff’ rights, and for the flexibility of any employee to get their day in court under this administration,” she said.
Additional reporting by Stefania Palma in Washington
