TCGPlayer employees have filed an unfair labor complaint against parent company eBay, The Verge reports. The company, which sells and authenticates trading cards was acquired by eBay in 2022. The complaint accuses eBay of ignoring the union’s existence after workers organized in March.
The workers at TCGPlayer were represented by Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 1123 and became “the first group of eBay workers to win union representation in the U.S.,” a CWA news release said at the time. Simultaneously, the CWA also filed an unfair labor practice complaint against TCGPlayer for allegedly “interfering with, restraining, and coercing employees engaging in protected and concerted union activity,” the release said.
However, since TCGPlayer employees unionized, both the company and eBay have stalled workers from negotiating a fair contract and refused to acknowledge the union.
“They have refused to give us our rights to the status quo. Our Weingarten rights. They refuse to recognize us as a union. They refuse to acknowledge the fact that [the union has] been certified even if we present them with certification,” Briana Thomas, a member of the TCG Union-CWA and part of its organizing committee said in a news release, told The Verge.
“So they are just continuing to make all these changes and refusing to work with us and refusing to follow their legal right to sit down or their legal responsibilities to sit down and bargain with us at the table,” Thomas added.
TCGPlayer and eBay are continuing to push back against the unions’ efforts by reportedly working with Littler Mendelson, an anti-union law firm that says it works against unions and for managers. The companies have filed several appeals challenging the organizing.
A TCGPlayer spokesperson said in an email to Gizmodo that the company isn’t aware that an Unfair Labor Practice charge was filed and said it has worked to give “team members a voice and opportunity to actively shape their future… .” The spokesperson continued: “We are firmly aware of and committed to meeting any and all obligations we may have under the National Labor Relations Act. We will continue to follow the procedures of the National Labor Relations Board.”
However, the CWA claimed TCGPlayer went so far as to illegally fire an employee only one business day after she voted for union representation. The employee, Iris St. Lucy, said in a CWA news release: “They want to make an example of us, but this egregious action only reveals how terrified TCGPlayer and eBay are of our collective power.”
The companies have been accused of forcing employees to attend anti-union meetings, monitoring anyone who wore CWA union paraphernalia, and interrogating workers.
“Not only are eBay and TCGplayer violating labor law, the company is undermining its workers’ rights to union representation, fair wages, dignity on the job, and the ability to support their families,” CWA secretary-treasurer Sara Steffens told Engadget. “TCGplayer needs to stop these attacks and commit to bargaining a contract in good faith,” she added.
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