eBay is the latest company to be hit with unfair labor complaints as this year\u2019s hot labor summer<\/a> continues amid strikes<\/a>, threats of strikes<\/a>, and workers all over the country organizing for better working conditions<\/a>. The complaints were filed on behalf of workers at TCGplayer, a company eBay acquired in 2022<\/a> that\u2019s known for selling and authenticating trading cards from games like Yu-Gi-Oh!<\/em>, Pok\u00e9mon<\/em>, and Magic: The Gathering<\/em>. The complaints allege that after workers at TCGplayer won their union election back in March<\/a>, management of eBay and TCGplayer has refused to acknowledge the union and engaged in tactics designed to impede or delay workers\u2019 ability to negotiate for a fair contract. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cMy colleagues and I haven\u2019t had a cost-of-living raise in 3 years. We are losing sick time and face constant changes at work that impact our ability to be successful,\u201d said Briana Thomas, a member of the TCG Union-CWA<\/a> and part of its organizing committee in a press release from the Communications Workers of America (CWA).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In an exclusive interview with The Verge<\/em>, Thomas spoke about the issues workers have had since winning their union election five months ago. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cBack in March, the majority of my coworkers and I voted in favor of the CWA representing us,\u201d Thomas said. Since then, Thomas explained that eBay and TCGplayer have filed several appeals challenging the election while also refusing to recognize the union amid the appeals process, stymieing TCG Union\u2019s ability to negotiate for a fair contract. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThey have refused to give us our rights to 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,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cSo 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Though the TCG Union-CWA was formed just this year, workers were set to vote on unionization back in 2020. According to Thomas, before the 2020 vote, TCGplayer management made promises to improve benefits and implement better pathways to promotion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThey asked us to give them a year to deliver on all these promises,\u201d Thomas said. She said that workers were given a raise, and the union vote was withdrawn<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe haven\u2019t gotten a raise since that one in 2020. And then things have just gotten worse.\u201d Two years after the withdrawn vote, eBay acquired the company for just under $300 million. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n In addition to refusing to recognize the union or meet union members at the bargaining table, Thomas said that eBay and TCGplayer have tried to further erode union support through intimidation tactics and by retaining Littler Mendelson, a notorious anti-union law firm known for its work against organizers at Starbucks<\/a> and Apple<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve had to deal with lots of captive audience meetings,\u201d Thomas claimed. \u201cWe had to deal with them quite literally demonizing those of us that wanted the union. They told us to call the cops on our coworkers if they made us feel uncomfortable. They spread lies about how we were showing up at people\u2019s houses and harassing them. They tried to perpetuate this idea that we were doing this maliciously.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The unfair labor complaints further allege that eBay and TCGplayer have: <\/p>\n<\/div>\n As labor movements in video games and other gaming-adjacent industries continue to gain momentum, most of the coverage has been centered on winning union elections. However, that is just the first in a series of steps toward a union\u2019s ultimate goal: a collective bargaining agreement that results in a fair contract. According to Thomas, that goal has been threatened by eBay and TCGplayer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cPeople are getting angry,\u201d Thomas continued. \u201cThey\u2019re angry because they\u2019re afraid. We are afraid that they are going to continue drawing this out.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n