TCGplayer union wins additional severance, benefits for laid off workers

Update June 10, 4:59pm EDT: Included eBay's official statement. Original story continues below.

Workers at TCGplayer’s card authentication center in Syracuse, New York had been in negotiations with eBay over a union contract for more than 600 days when its parent company announced in May it was closing the warehouse and laying off hundreds of workers. But that didn’t stop the union: First, members of TCGUnion-CWA organized a rally outside the authentication center days after the closure was announced. Then, they kept organizing. And it worked.

The union announced Monday that it had signed an agreement with eBay; not the union contract members were hoping for, but a closing agreement that gives the laid off employees much improved benefits. “Today we ratified a closing agreement with eBay/TCGplayer with a unanimous vote,” the union posted to BlueSky on Monday. “After several intensive days of bargaining, sustained pressure from your boycott, and the solidarity of our members, we were able to win a substantially improved severance package for TCGplayers.”

Here’s what they earned:

• 20 weeks of severance paid out $2.50 above current wages, which is “more than double” what employees were originally offered, according to the union
• Six months of COBRA medical benefits
• Seven months of “continued mental health benefits”
• An additional $1,250 for all members of the bargaining unit

“This severance agreement makes sure that our members will land firmly on their feet as we all move forward,” the union wrote. “We are so grateful for the support the TCG community has shown us, and we would not have made it this far without you all. Thank you for standing with us in solidarity and being such great allies in our fight.”

“We are pleased to have reached an agreement with Communications Workers of America (CWA), which the Authentication Center team members ratified on Monday, June 9," an eBay representative told Rascal via email. "We appreciate the CWA’s collaboration throughout the bargaining process, and believe the agreement provides the necessary support and resources to our employees during this transition. As always, we remain committed to taking care of our people, and treating them with care and respect through this process.”

The TCGplayer union was spun up in January 2023 and a majority of union-eligible workers at the authentication center — who do highly specialized work in evaluating Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon, and other trading cards — voted yes in a National Labor Relations Board vote held in March of that same year. Negotiations on the first contract started soon after, but the union quickly ran into trouble. Over the past several years, CWA has filed five unfair labor charges against eBay, the majority of which have since been closed. 

TCGplayer senior research and development specialist Richard Vallejo told Rascal in late May that the layoff felt like a “bait-and-switch” for workers. The floor dropped out from under us,” he said. 

“eBay could only beat our union by closing the entire Authentication Center and leaving town,” the union wrote in its most recent statement. “We live in a time of unchecked corporate power, and still we brought them to the table again and again. From Syracuse to Louisville, workers everywhere deserve rights, respect, and dignity on the job. As long as we don’t stop fighting for it, we will win.”