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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 year alleging it intervened against employee attempts to organise, but abruptly pulled back from two of the cases late last week, according to 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 in the agency’s records as an attorney acting in Apple’s defence in both cases against the Silicon Valley tech group.
Apple and the NLRB declined to comment. Carey remains an employee of Morgan Lewis pending confirmation by the US Senate, and the law firm did not respond to requests for comment. The White House did not respond 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 in 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 important democratic guardrails and institutions.
Earlier this year 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 unlawful.
The NLRB oversees US labour disputes, with individuals filing petitions against companies to its regional offices. If the watchdog determines that action should be taken, it brings charges, which are then adjudicated by administrative law judges. Regional NLRB offices can withdraw complaints before or after they are brought to hearings.
Janneke Parrish and Cher Scarlett were two of leading figures of the 2021 ‘AppleToo’ movement, an employee backlash against the iPhone maker over its handling of wage discrimination and harassment claims. Both women filed complaints with the NLRB after leaving the company, claiming they were sacked because of their labour organising efforts.
The agency backed their allegations when it brought complaints against Apple in 2024, accusing the company 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 “always respected our employees rights to discuss their wages, hours and working conditions and this 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 employee 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. But the NLRB late last week informed them the trials had 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, will be resubmitted to the NLRB’s ‘division of advice’, which assesses and offers guidance on cases that may address complex or novel legal theories.
A third former Apple employee with an NLRB complaint against the company, Ashley Gjøvik, said her case remained on track for a hearing in August.
Parrish said Carey’s prior representation of Apple in her case made her “extremely doubtful” that it would receive fair treatment.
“I fear for the future of workers’ rights, and for the ability of any worker to get their day in court under this administration,” she said.
Additional reporting by Stefania Palma in Washington
