eBay Deleted Support for Unions From Its Website After Its Workers Unionized

eBay quietly removed a clause in its human rights policy statement stating that it supports workers’ right to unionize after workers at subsidiary TCGPlayer won their union election in March, becoming the company’s first union. 

Both the New York City and New York State comptrollers wrote a letter to the company last week demanding an explanation for why the clause was deleted. 

“Until it was recently deleted, the Human Rights Policy stated that ‘eBay also respects workers’ rights to unionize and commits to bargain in good faith with any relevant associations or labor unions,’” comptrollers Brad Lander and Thomas DiNapoli wrote in the letter. “The circumstances surrounding the revision to the Human Rights Policy are unsettling and raise investor concerns about the Board’s commitment to human rights and its independent oversight.” 

“It is particularly troubling that this change coincided with a unionization effort within a recently acquired subsidiary and occurred after investors expressed concerns about management’s compliance with the now-deleted provision,” the letter continues, referring to the TCGPlayer election. TCGPlayer is eBay’s platform for buying and selling trading card games, which it acquired in October 2022. While they were organizing in January, workers said they faced retaliation from management, including “unlawful surveillance of union activity.” The workers won their election on March 11 as the TCGunion-CWA. 

On March 6, the most recent capture of the human rights policy before the union election, included the pro-unionization statement. 

“We recognize that creating economic opportunity for everyone includes our workforce,” the March 6 version of the statement read in part. “We do not tolerate any form of harassment, whether verbal or physical, in the workplace.…eBay also respects workers’ rights to unionize, and commits to bargain in good faith with any relevant associations or labor unions.” 

By August 30, a capture of eBay's human rights policy by the Internet Archive shows that the statement was gone. 

An eBay spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“In the run-up to the March 11, 2023, union election at TCGPlayer, management was alleged to have violated U.S. labor law by surveilling employees at work, holding anti-union meetings where anti-union messages were disseminated, and taking note of employees who displayed support for the union,” the comptrollers’ letter stated. “It has been reported that management continues to delay and resist bargaining in good faith. For instance, according to the workers’ bargaining committee, it recently proposed 25 dates to eBay’s negotiating team, which accepted only one.” 

“Given eBay’s alleged refusal to bargain, it is noteworthy that the current Human Rights Policy expressly acknowledges freedom of association as a ‘fundamental human right,’ without mentioning collective bargaining,” the letter continues. “Based on the excised language, we can only conclude that, as a matter of policy, the board and management no longer wish to publicly highlight the substance to which eBay has committed. If that is not the case, why delete the language?” 

“Companies thrive when their workers are supported and respected,” New York City Comptroller Lander said in a statement on Tuesday. “The stealthy removal of the language expressly referencing fundamental freedom of workers to unionize threatens eBay’s legacy and deepened our concern as shareholders.” Both the New York City and State pension funds are long-term investors in eBay, with 2.5 million shares in the company valued at $111 million as of June 30. Both pension funds also collectively hold more than $500 billion in assets. 

“We are disappointed to learn that eBay has chosen to remove language from its website’s human rights policy statement which had affirmed the company’s commitment to bargain with workers in good faith and respect for our right to unionize,” said Briana Thomas, a member of the TCGunion-CWA bargaining committee, in an emailed statement to Motherboard. “We confronted eBay executives about this change over two months ago and have yet to receive a response. We were not notified of this change but it would be wrong to say that it comes as a surprise. In fact, the old language was often at odds with corporate behavior. We hope eBay restores this critical language and puts the words into action by joining us at the bargaining table to negotiate a fair contract.” 

At the time of writing, the clause is not present in the human rights policy. Lander and DiNapoli gave eBay until December 4 to respond.

Update: This article was updated with comment from TCGunion-CWA.