Employees engaged in the first unionization drive at an Apple store filed an unfair labor practice charge against the tech giant on Tuesday. The charge alleges that the company violated the NLRA by holding captive audience meetings at the facility. As I explained a few weeks ago, captive audience meetings are legal under existing Board caselaw, but General Counsel Abruzzo, characterizing them as a “license to coerce,” has urged the Board to displace that doctrine. Last month, the Atlanta store at issue here became the first Apple facility to petition for a union election, and that development prompted several others to follow suit.

The proposed $6.6 billion merger between Spirit and Frontier Airlines, two of the country’s leading ultra low cost carriers, received a boost on Tuesday, as AFA-CWA, the union representing both companies’ flight attendants, granted its “full support” to the plan. AFA-CWA offered its endorsement to the deal only after securing a transition agreement with Frontier designed to safeguard the interests of the union and its members. The agreement precludes any merger until a joint CBA has been ratified, bars Frontier from furloughing any attendant as a result of the process, and preserves all seniority rights. These provisions, the union affirms, collectively insure that “the merger will benefit Flight Attendants.” Nevertheless, even with the union’s support, the merger’s prospects remain uncertain. The proposal has precipitated a measure of hostility among lawmakers and is subject to antitrust scrutiny by the FTC.

In NLRB news, Angie Cowan Hamada, an attorney with the Chicago-based labor-side firm Allison, Slutsky, & Kennedy, was appointed to serve as the Director of Region 13. Cowan Hamada, “a brilliant labor lawyer who has dedicated her career to protecting workers’ rights,” in the words of GC Abruzzo, worked for a union prior to attending law school, was a Peggy Browning Fellow during law school, and has largely represented unions and workers in private practice.