Mar 11, 2023
EBay Collectibles Subsidiary Employees Approve Forming a Union
, Bloomberg News
(Bloomberg) -- Employees of EBay Inc. subsidiary TCGplayer, a marketplace for collectible card games, voted in favor of forming a union, the Communications Workers of America said Friday. It will be EBay’s first union.
More than 270 employees, whose roles include inspecting cards as well as packing and shipping them from an authentication center in Syracuse, New York, will be members of the Communications Workers of America. The workers in January submitted a petition to form a union, seeking better pay and other benefits.
EBay in October completed its $295 million acquisition of TCGplayer. The company runs a marketplace for buying and selling collectible card games such as Pokemon and Magic: The Gathering. Based in San Jose, California, EBay has more than 11,000 employees, none represented by unions until now.
“We are disappointed our Authentication Center team members in Syracuse have decided to end their direct relationship with TCGplayer,” the EBay unit said in a statement. “Our priority continues to be building a positive workplace culture that supports our team members and benefits our TCGplayer community.”
TCGplayer workers filed for a union election in 2020, but withdrew the petition before a vote. The Communications Workers of America has been trying to organize employees in the video game and card game industries.
“We are ready to take on a more active role in determining the conditions of our work to ensure a better quality of life for ourselves, and a better quality of service for our customers,” Jennifer Bonham, a worker at TCGplayer, said in Communications Workers of America’s statement. “By joining together to form our union we can make TCGplayer a more equitable workplace.”
About 10.1% of all US wage and salary workers were members of unions in 2022, down from 10.3% the previous year and the lowest rate on record going back 40 years. Unions added 273,000 new members in 2022, but the workforce grew by more than 5 million, so the union rate still dropped. Union workers earn about 18% more than non-union workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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