Hundreds of Wayfair employees filled Copley Square in Boston Wednesday afternoon to protest the online retailer’s sale of bedroom furniture for use in migrant detention centers along the U.S. southern border. In Brunswick, four employees at the company contact center joined the walkout, along with about 20 community activists.
The employees in Brunswick declined to be recorded, but say that while they enjoy working for the company, they do not support its business relationship with migrant detention facilities.
“They’re making beds and profiting off of this atrocity being perpetrated on innocent children in our United States,” says Laura Lander, a member of Brunswick Area Indivisible, an activist organization.
More than 500 employees signed a letter to Wayfair’s management, expressing opposition to their decision to sell over $200,000 worth of furniture to BCFS, a nonprofit in Texas that manages migrant detention centers.
Wayfair responded with a letter stating, “It is our business to sell to any customer who is acting within the laws of the countries within which we operate.”
Wayfair also announced Wednesday that it would make a $100,000 donation to the Red Cross.
Eliana Miller and Julie Pike are 2019 Maine Public Dowe Interns.
