A Johns Hopkins University doctoral student is accusing union officials of trying to push her out of the school’s academic program after she refused to turn over personal financial information.
Andrea Ori, a Ph.D. candidate in molecular biophysics, filed federal charges with the National Labor Relations Board on Friday, alleging that leaders of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America pressured the university to remove her from the program.
Ori alleged that the union’s demands violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which protects the confidentiality of student records.
She is being represented by attorneys from the non-profit National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides free legal aid to employees in disputes with unions.
Union representatives and Johns Hopkins University officials could not be reached for comment on Friday.
Detailing the case
According to Ori’s filing, UE officials demanded that she hand over pay stubs and other financial documents despite her religious exemption from paying union dues, which she obtained in 2024. Her complaint states that the union’s requests had no basis in the collective bargaining agreement, her accommodation, or federal labor law.
“Nothing in the contract, the religious accommodation, or the National Labor Relations Act required her to disclose this private financial information, which was also protected by FERPA,” Ori’s said in the documents.
Ori’s complaint alleges that after she refused, the union asked Johns Hopkins administrators to terminate her from the program — a move her attorneys described as “industrial capital punishment.”
Unfair labor practice charges are filed with the National Labor Relations Board, not by federal prosecutors, according to the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. Under the National Labor Relations Act, employers, union officials or individual workers can submit these charges, prompting an investigation by the NLRB, which is reviewing this complaint.
Individuals can file on their own, though workers who oppose union control often turn to National Right to Work Foundation attorneys for help in detailing alleged coercive actions by union officials.
Ori’s attorneys filed by mail and fax because the NLRB website was largely inactive during the government shutdown.
Although the law does not explicitly define graduate students as employees, a 2016 ruling by the NLRB extended collective bargaining rights to graduate students at private universities.
Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation, said Ori’s case illustrates the risks of giving unions authority over graduate students.
“Union officials have threatened academic freedom from coast to coast,” Mix said in a statement. “As Ms. Ori’s case shows, they are also threatening graduate students’ careers by acting as if they have a right to send them packing for not divulging their private information.”
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