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“It is hereby declared to be the policy of the United States to…encourage the practice and procedure of collective bargaining and [to] protect…the exercise by workers of full freedom of association, self-organization and designation of representatives of their own choosing, for the purpose of negotiating the terms and conditions of their employment or other mutual aid or protection.”
The question would be then, are we as ebay sellers, workers or entrepreneurs? Either way we are not entitled to negotiate the terms of use of the so called “venue” that ebay supplies, collectively or individually. As the “venue” supplied by ebay is, for all intents and purposes, a monopoly insofar as the online marketplace goes, coupled with the inescapable fact that they (ebay) collects a percentage of all business conducted there, I submit that what we are is no more than a group of piece workers, some of us well compensated piece workers, but workers nonetheless. We know, as does ebay, that there is no other viable place to go and so we are stuck like a family of coal miners in West Virginia in the early 1900’s. No negotiating, no complaining, live in the company house (ebay), use the company store (paypal), take what we give you and like it…or we’ll boot you out and your family can starve. They know for fact that this is the economic reality facing many if not most people who do this for a living and we should know it also. The answer, then as now is a unified voice. Whether we consider ourselves entrepreneurs or just plain old working stiffs we are desperately in need of a voice that will be heard by ebay management. To this end, I propose that SUBAT, together with PSU and any and all other interested parties make a real effort to organize an effective group. The AFL-CIO might be a good place to start, and if they can’t help us we will have to pull it together ourselves, but in any event we are either going to hang together or surely we will hang apart. If you think for one minute that this will be the end of ebay managements ongoing attempt to further enslave us sellers you might as well start listing items tonight. As of today this boycott has had little or no effect with “entrepreneurs” listing more items than were available yesterday. Many do so in ignorance of the boycott, many because of plain ignorance, they must be reached. Buyers continue to buy, they must be educated to our plight, one that ultimately effects them. We must organize and convince ebay that enough is enough, that we WILL have a seat at the table and that we WILL NOT bear the price of poor decision making, inept management, failure to properly control their own “venue” and so forth. Enough talking..time for some doing! Thanks.
