Protesters filled Boston’s Copley Square Wednesday afternoon as part of the “Wayfair Walkout,” where the company’s employees staged a work stoppage to protest the retailer profiting from President Donald Trump’s child detention policies.
Hundreds of Wayfair workers and supporters took part in the Wednesday action both in Boston and in Brunswick, Maine. The Boston Globe reported that management “indicated there will be no retaliation for employees who participate in the walkout.”
The protest stems from worker unrest over Wayfair’s contracting with BCFS, a company running child detention facilities.
“We cannot be a nation that stands for locking up little children. What these workers are doing is brave and necessary.”
—Sen. Bernie Sanders
In a letter to Wayfair leadership on June 21, a group of 547 employees called on the company to reject the contract because “the current actions of the United States and their contractors at the southern border do not represent an ethical partnership Wayfair should choose to be a part of.”
After the company leadership refused, the group asked that the $86,000 in profits from the contract be donated to immigration legal advocacy group RAICES. Wayfair’s leadership on Wednesday instead announced they would donate $100,000 to the Red Cross—an attempt to defuse the situation that was seen as insufficient.
“This is great news! And proof that Wayfair can and does do good,” said the walkout’s Twitter account. “However, the Red Cross has nothing to do with these ICE-operated facilities.”
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