Ocasio-Cortez Backs Wayfair Workers’ Ire Over Border-Camp Sales
Wayfair Faces Worker Outrage Over Sales to Border Camp Contractors
(Bloomberg) -- Employees at Wayfair Inc. are planning to walk out in protest of the online furniture retailer’s alleged business with contractors that are furnishing border camps for asylum seekers, according to an unverified Twitter thread.
Workers at the company’s Boston headquarters will walk off the job at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday and meet at the city’s Copley Square to protest, according to a Twitter user called @wayfairwalkout, whose first Tweet was written Tuesday. The post says 547 employees signed a letter to the company’s management urging it to cease business with contractors involved in the detention camps and establish a code of ethics for Wayfair’s business-to-business sales.
According to the post, the company will make $86,000 from sales to those contractors furnishing the camps. Workers are demanding the profits be donated to Raices, a nonprofit agency that offers legal services to immigrants.
Wayfair didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment from Bloomberg News.
Another Twitter user posted an image of what it said was the management team’s internal response to the employee letter, stating it’s “standard practice to fulfill orders for all customers.” The company did not reply to a request to verify the authenticity of the response.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez weighed in on Twitter, too, telling her more than 4 million followers that “this is what solidarity looks like.”
Civil action has swelled against President Donald Trump’s immigration policies in recent weeks, with outrage growing following reports that refugee children are being separated from parents and detained in poor conditions.
Some Twitter users shared the #wayfairwalkout hashtag and said they’d be pulling their orders from the retailer, though others said they’d rather the migrants in detention have beds.
The employee letter said the deal in question was with BCFS, a non-profit government contractor managing camps for migrants at the Mexican border. BCFS lists the Border Patrol, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Homeland Security as government partners on its website.
"We believe youth should sleep in beds with mattresses," BCFS Public Information Officer Krista Piferrer said in an emailed statement to Bloomberg News.
Wayfair’s shares fell 5.3% to $144.40 on Tuesday. The stock is up 60% since the start of the year.
Related: Acting Border Protection Chief Will Step Down as Migrant Children Are Returned to Texas Facility
To contact the reporters on this story: Deena Shanker in New York at dshanker@bloomberg.net;Jonathan Roeder in Mexico City at jroeder@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anne Riley Moffat at ariley17@bloomberg.net, Craig Giammona
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