Wayfair to donate $100,000 to Red Cross after employee protest over furnishing border facilities

Wayfair is reportedly donating $100,000 to the American Red Cross following employee backlash over the company’s $200,000 deal to furnish detention facilities at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Employees at the furniture retailer’s Boston headquarters participated in a walkout on Wednesday, after asking executives to cease business with a non-profit government contractor and donate proceeds from a recent bedroom furniture sale to a refugee advocacy group. 

Wayfair employees, using the Twitter handle @WayfairWalkout, said Tuesday executives did not agree to the request, which was signed by more than 547 employees. The request asked for proceeds from the $200,000 be donated to the advocacy group Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES).{mosads}

Amid the employee walkout, Wayfair co-founders Steve Conine and Niraj Shah sent a letter to employees saying $100,000 donation would be made to the American Red Cross, “in their effort to help those in dire need of basic necessities at the border,” according to a copy of the letter obtained and reviewed by CNN. 

Wayfair has not responded to The Hill for comment.

Protesters shared images of the walkout on Twitter, showing employees in Boston’s Copley Square with signs reading “#wewontbecomplicit in childhood incarceration” and “don’t look away.”  

pic.twitter.com/ojaRQmDtPC

— wayfairwalkout (@wayfairwalkout) June 26, 2019

The #wayfairwalkout happening now! pic.twitter.com/1qsSy3nQ74

— NE JLC (@NEJewishLabor) June 26, 2019

The protest was backed by progressive freshman Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). 

It follows recent reports of unsanitary and inhumane conditions at border facilities housing migrants, including children and infants.