Basically the title. A few years ago I enrolled as a PhD student and GA at the University of Connecticut. I saw some bad writing on the wall about the way students were being treated and I tried to join the UConn Grad Student Union. I had to write down my department and advisor on the membership form. I guess they reached out to her to confirm my position and she told me “my students don't unionize” and (?) refused to sign the membership form, so I couldn't join. Isn't this illegal? And yet it does say right on the grad union website, “All GAs, with the exception of the Health Center in Framingham, are members of the bargaining unit” which my department was housed under. http://uconngradunion.org/home/resources/current-members/forms/
I dropped out after a year in the program because, unsurprisingly, I was super correct about all those red flags I noticed early on. However it's two years later and I'm still mad about it and baffled how it could be the case that my advisor could just… not agree to let me join a union? Any insight from people who understand how this might work better than I do?