Wayfair workers protest bed sale
Buyer runs migrant detention center
BOSTON — Employees at online home furnishings retailer Wayfair walked out Wednesday to protest the company’s decision to sell $200,000 worth of furniture to a government contractor that runs a detention center for migrant children in Texas.
The protest triggered a broader backlash against the company, with some customers calling for a boycott. Several hundred people joined the protest at a plaza near the company’s Boston headquarters, a mix of employees and people from outside the company.
More than 500 employees at the company’s Boston headquarters signed a protest letter to executives when they found out about the contract. Wayfair refused to back out of the contract but told employees Wednesday that it would donate $100,000 to the Red Cross.
“Last week, we found out about the sale and that we
are profiting from this. And we are not comfortable with that,” said Tom Brown, 33, a Wayfair engineer at the protest. “For me personally, there is more to life than profit.”
Democratic presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders said they stood by the Wayfair employees who are protesting, as did Rep. Alexandria Ocasiocortez of New York.
Wayfair’s stock slipped more than 5 percent Tuesday as word of the walkout spread. On Wednesday, the stock rose about 1 percent.
The protest comes amid an uproar over revelations of terrible conditions at a Border Patrol facility in Clint, Texas, including inadequate food, lack of medical care, no soap and older children trying to care for toddlers. And emotions were running high one day after photos published by the Mexican newspaper La Jornada and distributed worldwide showed the bodies of a migrant father and his daughter who drowned while trying to cross the Rio Grande from Mexico to enter the United States without legal permission.
The surge of migrant families has left U.S. immigration detention centers overcrowded and taxed the government’s ability to provide medical care and other attention. Six children have died since September after being detained by border agents. The acting head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection resigned Tuesday, but he did not give a reason for leaving.
In a letter to the employees, Wayfair leaders said that it’s practice to fulfill orders for any customer acting within the law.
“We believe it is our business to sell to any customer who is acting within the laws of the countries within which we operate,” the letter said.
Wayfair said it would have no more comment on the protest.
Wayfair sold the beds to Baptist Children’s Family Services, a nonprofit with federal contracts to manage some of the camps along the border.
“We believe youth should sleep in beds with mattresses,” the organization said in a statement.
Madeline Howard, a product manager at Wayfair, said company leaders had held a town hall earlier this week to listen to employee concerns but would not budge on their stance.