NLRB retreats from labor cases

The U.S. labor board has abandoned its allegations that Apple Inc. Chief Executive Tim Cook violated federal labor law, one of many cases where the agency is adopting a more business-friendly approach under President Trump.

- By JosH EIDELSON

In a Friday letter viewed by Bloomberg News, the general counsel's office of the National Labor Relations Board said it was withdrawing many of the claims in a complaint it had issued against Apple in January.

‘The allegations being dismissed include claims that Cook violated workers’ rights when he sent an email saying Apple was doing whatever it could to track down those who leaked information from a confidential meeting, and that “people who leak confidential information do not belong here.”

That all-staff email, sent in September 2021, followed media reports about a companywide internal meeting the previous week at which management fielded questions about topics such as pay equity and Apple's response to a Texas anti-abortionlaw.

The agency's prosecutors are also withdrawing allegations that Apple broke the law by imposing confidentiality rules, firing activist Janneke Parrish, and surveilling workers or making them think they were under surveillance. In the January complaint, the labor board alleged that the company’s behavior, including Cook’s email, had been “interfering with, restraining and coercing employees in the exercise of their rights.”