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The US supervisor raised two cases against Apple days after Donald Trump appointed a lawyer representing the technology group to be the agency’s top legal officer.
The National Labor Relations Board raised numerous complaints against the creator of the iPhone last year claiming that it intervened against employees’ efforts to organize, but suddenly withdrew from the two cases at the end of last week, according to documents viewed by Financial Times.
Trump last week named Crystal Carey, a partner in Morgan Lewis & Bockius, to be NLRB general adviser. It is listed in the agency’s data as a lawyer acting on Apple’s protection in both cases against the Silicon Valley technology group.
Apple and NLRB refused to comment. Carey remains a Morgan Lewis employee pending confirmation from the US Senate, and the legal firm did not respond to commentary requests. The White House did not respond to a comment request.
Morgan Lewis, who specializes in representing management in labor disputes, has also acted for Elon Musk’s Spacex and Amazon in their challenges against the agency.
Carey’s name comes as Trump seeks to strengthen his control of independent federal agencies, aroused concerns that his administration is destroying important democratic guards and institutions.
At the beginning of this year, Trump fired NLRB Gwynne Wilcox Democratic Board member and Agency General Advisor Jennifer Abruzzo. Wilcox has appealed against the mass, claiming it was illegal.
NLRB oversees US labor disputes, with individuals presenting petitions against companies in its regional offices. If the guard stipulates that the action must be taken, he brings charges, which are then adjudicated by judges of administrative law. NLRB regional offices may withdraw complaints before or after they are brought to hearing.
Janneke Parrish and Cher Scarlett were two of the leading figures of the 2021 ‘Appletoo’ Movement, a reaction of employees against the Iphone creator to handle his wage discrimination and excitement claims. Both women filed complaints to the NLRB after leaving the company, claiming they had been dismissed due to their efforts to organize their work.
The agency supported their claims when she filed complaints against Apple in 2024, accusing the company of violating federal labor laws. He said the iPhone manufacturer had intervened in discussions about salary capital and that Scarlett faced constructive removal to protect changes in the workplace.
Apple has strongly agreed with claims, saying that it has always “respected our employees’ rights to discuss their salaries, hours and working conditions and this is included in our business behavior policy, which all employees are trained every year”.
The group also made some changes after the Appletoo Movement, including the removal of the Gagging clauses of employees related to workplace harassment in 2022.
The hearing before an administrative law judge were planned for April and June in the issues of Parrish and Scarlett, respectively. But the NLRB at the end of last week announced that the trials had to be postponed indefinitely pending a legal review by the Agency’s head office.
Cases brought by the Oakland office, California NLRB, will be reset to the NLRB ‘Division of Councils’, which evaluates and provides guidelines for cases that can address complex or new legal theories.
A former Apple’s third employee with a NLRB complaint against the company, Ashley Gjøvik, said her case remained on the right track for a hearing in August.
Parrish said Apple’s prior representation of Carey in her case made her “extremely suspicious” that she would receive a fair treatment.
“I’m afraid of the future of workers’ rights and the ability of every worker to take their day to court under this administration,” she said.
Additional reporting by Stefania Palma in Washington
