A group of employees attempting to organize the first union at an Apple retail store filed an unfair labor practice charge on Tuesday alleging that the company conducted captive audience meetings. The charge is interesting in that it could serve as a vehicle to challenge the NLRB caselaw blessing such meetings, which GC Abruzzo recently characterized as a “license to coerce” and urged the Board to proscribe. Last month this Atlanta location became the first Apple shop to petition for a union election, which prompted several others to do the same in recent weeks.

On Tuesday the AFA-CWA offered its “full support” to the proposed merger between Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines, two of the most dominant ultra low-cost carriers. The announcement significantly heightens the possibility that the multibillion-dollar deal will be pushed through, with the potential to reshape the industry. In exchange for its endorsement, the union — which represents flight attendants at both carriers — extracted several concessions aiming to protect its members: primarily, that the merger will not be finalized until a joint collective bargaining agreement has been ratified, will not result in any furloughs, and will not disturb seniority. The merger faces significant political headwinds even with the influential union’s support, as an expanding and increasingly bipartisan group of lawmakers signals skepticism and the FTC, recently displaying a renewed commitment to antitrust enforcement, begins to examine its anticompetitive effects.

In labor law enforcement news, Angie Cowan Hamada, an attorney with the Chicago-based labor-side firm Allison, Slutsky, & Kennedy, was appointed RD of Region 13. Ms. Cowan Hamada, “a brilliant labor lawyer who has dedicated her career to protecting workers’ rights,” in the words of General Counsel Abruzzo, worked for a union before law school, was a Peggy Browning Fellow in law school, and has devoted her practice almost exclusively to representing unions and workers.