Snapshot Summary

• Takeaways: Primary focus of the day was on the Gender Equity proposal with Frankie and Valerie Rowan joining as subject matter experts from the bargaining unit. We had a successful picket action outside of this session with everyone’s voices outside the room amplifying our message at the table!
• Upcoming Sessions: June 14, June 28, July 22–23, August 26–27
• Union Proposals: Gender Equity; Weekend & Shift Differentials; Ergonomics; Political Action Fund Deductions; Rules, Policies & Procedures
• TCGplayer Proposals: Personal Leave; Management Rights; Rules, Policies & Procedures; Overtime; Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA)

Full Report

On June 13th, 2024, we had our nineteenth bargaining session for our first contract. Our team for this session included Ethan Salerius and Bob Guy, as well as CWA staff rep Deb Hayes and Local 1123 President Chris Ryan. Frankie Rowan and Valerie Rowan also joined today as our first subject matter experts from the bargaining unit to help us present our latest iteration of the Gender Equity proposal.

Our dedicated coworkers showed up in force to picket, showing TCGplayer and eBay that we are serious about equity and fair treatment for all AC workers. We saw the company’s team react in real time to the collective power that everyone brought to this session. The presence was felt by everyone in the room. Despite eBay’s team characterizing this demonstration as a bad faith bargaining tactic, we will continue to use our legally-protected rights to concerted action to show that the Bargaining Committee doesn’t stand alone in demanding that management stop stalling.

In addition to the day’s proposals, we continued to forward requests to bargain over discipline. We discussed several open issues, including unanswered information requests around cameras and security. Finally, we answered some of the questions that eBay’s team had about our outstanding proposal on The Weekend. We were able to identify that the amount of work required to bring TCGplayer into compliance with our proposal is much lower than the company initially projected, and are hopeful moving forward that we can find a way to bring two consecutive days off to everyone who wants it in the AC.

Today’s action shows the company that our Union is still as strong as ever, and that we are all serious about getting a contract. We want eBay to see that it is futile to fight against the will of its workers. This momentum will help the Bargaining Committee push for better results as we continue moving forward in negotiations.

Our Proposals

• Gender Equity: As subject matter experts from the bargaining unit, Frankie and Valerie Rowan presented our latest Gender Equity proposal, providing context to the lived experiences of many who would be affected by this proposal. They highlighted the deficiencies of the company’s response, showcasing how the company can live up to its own core values by addressing issues such as deadnaming, higher standards for medical benefits, and reasonable menstrual leave policy. The company continues to take issue with the commitments related to economic matters. Identifying guiding principles in this proposal would not only commit both parties to take these matters seriously as we move into economic subjects, but for future contract negotiations as well. The company had no formal response to our proposal.
• Weekend & Shift Differentials: NEW In response to recent changes for hourly employees at TCGplayer outside of the bargaining unit, we proposed an article, that would be effective from 6/10/2024, that would bring our differential pay in line with the rest of the company. The new proposal would provide a scaling differential of 10–20 percent extra pay for night and weekend shifts, providing the greatest differential for weekend night shifts. The company did not have a response for this proposal.
• Ergonomics: NEW After reviewing the ergonomics report the company obtained last year, we drafted an extensive proposal to build protections from repetitive motion injuries and other ergonomic hazards. This includes establishing a Joint Health and Safety committee, empowered to identify and mitigate known hazards in our process and procedures. The committee would perform job analysis to identify high risk tasks, track injury records, and facilitate training on ergonomics. The company failed to provide a formal response to our proposal.
• Political Action Fund Deductions: Our proposal brings the language in line with current CWA practices, in place of what the company had most recently proposed. The company did not respond to this proposal at this time.
• Rules, Policies & Procedures: We added just cause language to references to discipline, and dropped a lot of the specific examples that we are likely to bargain over at a later date. We also removed the company’s zipper clause that would give the company exclusive rights over everything not explicitly bargained for in this agreement. After some discussion, the company remained unable to agree to this latest version.

Management’s Proposals

• Personal Leave: The company responded in part to our proposals on leave, outlining eligible reasons and procedures for leaves of absence. Notably, this proposal removed the section covering FMLA which the company made as a standalone proposal later in the day. We have requested information related to this item and plan to respond once we have received an answer to that request.
• Management Rights: This proposal has been a priority issue for eBay’s team, trying to carve out many mandatory subjects of bargaining as exclusive management rights. We remain unwilling to sign away any of our rights to negotiate or grieve on subjects such as work assignments, automation, and surveillance. We took the time to cover several items in particular that were of concern to us, and remained unable to reach a mutual understanding on many of them. We agreed to work on a counter to this in the second half of the day.
• Rules, Policies & Procedures: Despite some significant language revisions, we still remain far apart on our understanding of what this proposal should cover and how the company should be allowed to make changes to policies and procedures. The company’s position continues to be that they want the right to implement new and change existing policies without first discussing things with our Union. We maintain that we have concerns that some of their language would restrict our rights to bargain over some mandatory subjects of bargaining, and are therefore unwilling to agree to their proposal as written.
• Overtime: Despite our offer of a compromise position on mandatory overtime assignments, the company’s latest proposal removed our language that would provide premium overtime pay for mandatory assignments, reverting to the language from their original position that they can mandate overtime at any time. This remains the point of division between both sides on the issue, and as such we were unable to accept their proposal as written here.
• Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA): The company split out FMLA provisions from our unpaid leave proposal, maintaining an explicit requirement for employees to exhaust all accrued PTO when taking any length of leave. We cannot agree to any such requirement as we understand the implications on our coworkers after the change in enforcement earlier this year. We believe AC workers should have full agency over how their PTO is used.

Upcoming Dates

• 6/14: Bargaining Session
• 6/23: June Members’ Meeting
• 6/28: Bargaining Session
• 7/21: July Members’ Meeting
• 7/22: Bargaining Session
• 7/23: Bargaining Session
• 8/18: August Members’ Meeting
• 8/26: Bargaining Session
• 8/27: Bargaining Session
• 9/15: September Members’ Meeting