“John Doe” grad students resist Labor Board claim that labor law can override Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act

Nashville, TN (October 23, 2024) – Two graduate students at Vanderbilt University are seeking to intervene in a federal case in which Vanderbilt Graduate Workers United (VGWU, an affiliate of the United Auto Workers union, UAW) union officials are demanding personal information that the students wish to keep private. The students, who identify themselves in legal documents as “John Doe 1” and “John Doe 2,” have obtained free legal aid from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation to challenge a union subpoena demanding their personal information.

The students’ motion to intervene is now before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in Washington, DC, following a special appeal from an NLRB Region 10 decision that tossed the motion on the specious ground that the students are “not a labor organization” and consequently have no interest in the case.

VGWU union bosses are seeking the students’ personal information as part of the union campaign to place Vanderbilt graduate students under UAW union monopoly bargaining control. NLRB Region 10 in Atlanta has issued a subpoena at the union’s behest seeking to force Vanderbilt University to hand over this information to union officials. However, the graduate students argue that the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) forbids the Vanderbilt administration from disclosing this information to any third parties without their permission, including the UAW.

“The…subpoena to Vanderbilt is an attempt to violate FERPA’s protections, privileging union interests over the graduate students[’] privacy rights,” reads the graduate students’ appeal. “The Graduate Students seek to provide the Region legal arguments in support of their privacy interests, and against the…subpoena of Vanderbilt.”

Students Want Stop in Subpoena Enforcement So They Can Defend Their Privacy

The students’ original motion to intervene notes that FERPA’s language permits students to seek “protective action” if a university receives a subpoena seeking their personal information, as in this case. In light of that, the students are asking for a halt in the subpoena’s enforcement so they can properly defend their privacy interests. While the motion notes that the NLRB’s standards for allowing intervention have been unclear over the years, it argues that the students’ goal to defend their privacy interests provides a solid ground for intervention.

The VGWU union is an affiliate of the UAW union, which has a penchant for ignoring or violating employee rights in pursuit of gaining greater power over workers, businesses, and other institutions. The union is still under federal monitoring following a years-long embezzlement probe that uncovered millions of dollars in workers’ dues money misspent on luxury items, gambling, vacations, and more. The probe resulted in the convictions of about a dozen top UAW bosses.

“UAW officials are seeking to override college students’ federal privacy protections, which in addition to having no basis in law also treats students as pawns in the union’s ascent to power at the university,” commented National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “The NLRB under both Obama and Biden has twisted longstanding labor law to give union bosses the power to force students into dues-paying union ranks. But graduate students across the country are increasingly discovering that heavy-handed union monopoly bargaining power means less freedom both in and out of the classroom and more inefficiency, disruption, and radical political activism.

“Union monopoly bargaining is a system particularly ill-suited to an academic environment. But it also forces workers all over the country to associate with and pay dues to union bosses they never wanted and may have explicitly voted against,” Mix added. “The Vanderbilt students we represent are right to resist this kind of compulsion and we will defend their right to privacy.”

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable organization providing free legal aid to employees whose human or civil rights have been violated by compulsory unionism abuses. The Foundation, which can be contacted toll-free at 1-800-336-3600, assists thousands of employees in about 200 cases nationwide per year.