eBay-owned Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon, and Yugioh store TCGplayer has formally recognized its workers’ union and committed to bargaining, the TCGplayer union Twitter account has declared. This occurred just one day after the National Labor Relations Board rejected eBay’s appeal to disqualify the group’s vote to unionize.
Employees at TCGplayer, an online marketplace for trading card games, voted to form a union on March 10, 2023. However, TCGplayer argued that this election was invalid, arguing that the Operations Leads were supervisors who should not have been able to take part in the voting process.
But on August 10, the NLRB rejected the employer’s request to invalidate the vote, stating that it “raises no substantial issues warranting review”. TCG Union announced on social media that, one day later, the company agreed to come to the bargaining table. This comes just a couple of weeks after workers at TCGplayer claimed eBay was attempting to sabotage its efforts to organize.
“This NLRB ruling is a testament to our persistence & our unity. We are stronger together, and we have a RIGHT to organize at work,” tweeted out the union account. The next step for the union will be to try and reach a first contract, a sometimes arduous process for unions that takes over a year on average, according to Bloomberg.
Elsewhere in the world of card game sellers, online MTG marketplace Card Kingdom has just signed its first contract with its unionizing workers. It stated in a July 28 press release that this “mutually beneficial” contract would “honor the union process and employee voices while not trading our customer expectations and cultural foundations”.
For more MTG news, check out the MTG release schedule for the rest of 2023, and keep an eye on our MTG Wilds of Eldraine guide as new information and card spoilers start to appear.