Cher Scarlett | |
|---|---|
 Scarlett in 2021 | |
| Born | April 6, 1985[1] Walla Walla, Washington, U.S.[2] |
| Occupation | Software engineer |
| Employer | ControlZee |
| Known for | Workers' rights advocacy |
| Notable work | #AppleToo movement Apple Together |
Cher Scarlett (born April 6, 1985) is an American software engineer, workers' rights activist, and writer who is known for starting #AppleToo. She has organized staff at Apple, Activision Blizzard, and Starbucks.
Scarlett, who has bipolar disorder, experienced struggles in her early life, leading her to drop out of high school and attempt to overdose. Self-taught web development skills from her adolescence in the late 1990s allowed her to overcome a lack of formal education and build a software engineering career after the birth of her child. Scarlett's experiences and observations in a male-dominated occupation led her to become a workers' rights advocate and critic of technology and corporations.
She was a leader of the #AppleToo movement, which gathered and shared stories of mistreatment from current and former Apple employees, and was a founder of Apple Together, a solidarity union, where she remains an advisor. Scarlett also filed complaints against Apple with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. After months of activism at the company, Scarlett resigned with a now-defunct settlement after she says she was harassed, intimidated, and retaliated against. In October 2024, the NLRB prosecutor charged Apple with illegally terminating Scarlett through constructive dismissal.
Scarlett has successfully lobbied for labor laws in Washington state. She also advocated for Apple shareholder proposals regarding civil rights and concealment clauses, the first to be approved by the company's shareholders in more than 10 years. The audit into concealment clauses resulted in an overhaul of Apple's employment contracts.