Workers at TCGPlayer, owned by eBay, a trading card game marketplace like Magic: The GatheringI have voted in favor of joining a union. eBay bought the company in 2022 for as much as $295 million, but the website continues to operate independently. Now that the 272 non-supervisory workers at the company’s authentication center in Syracuse, New York, are represented by the Communications Workers of America, they have become the first group to form a union on eBay in the US.
Organized workers, who are responsible for ensuring the accuracy and quality of all shipments in and out of the company, stood in a union election before the National Labor Relations Board in January. They wanted to unionize in an attempt to have a voice within the company, and were also looking for wage increases to account for inflation, a fair and comprehensive sick and absence policy, as well as inclusive career advancement opportunities, fair hiring practices and transparent. and clearly defined job roles and expectations.
In the CWA’s union victory announcement, he said that TCGPlayer workers first tried to unionize in 2020. However, the company hired a union buster to “spread misinformation” and the workers eventually withdrew their petition for a vote due to the pandemic. While they were successful this time, his employer reportedly tried to get them to back down again. CWA filed an unfair labor practice charge against the company in January for illegal surveillance of union activity. He filed more charges last week, accusing the company of threatening workers for supporting unionization efforts and forcing them to attend anti-union meetings as well. Union workers are still awaiting the NLRB’s decision on those complaints.
