|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Google Fires 28 Employees for Disruptive Protests Against Israel Contract, Sparking Outrage and Debate
Edited by: Fern Sidman
In a significant crackdown on employee activism, Google has terminated 28 employees associated with the protest group “No Tech For Apartheid,” following a series of disruptive sit-ins at their New York and Sunnyvale, California offices. According to a report in the New York Post on Wednesday, the employees, who wore traditional Arab headscarves, had forcefully occupied the office of a top executive in California and engaged in actions that included defacing property and obstructing the work of their colleagues. The protests were aimed at Google’s involvement in “Project Nimbus,” a $1.2 billion contract in which Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services provide cloud computing and artificial intelligence services to the Israeli government and military.
Google employees who staged protest over Gaza get shitcanned and arrested.
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) April 18, 2024
According to a memo from Chris Rackow, Google’s vice president of global security, the terminated employees’ actions were deemed “unacceptable, extremely disruptive, and made co-workers feel threatened,” the Post report said. The memo, which was obtained by The Post, detailed how the employees had taken over office spaces and disrupted the normal operations of the company, compelling Google to reassess their conduct and adherence to corporate policies.
The protest was part of a wider “No Tech for Genocide Day of Action,” which also saw similar activities in Google’s Chelsea offices in Manhattan and extended as far as the company’s Seattle location, as was indicated in the Post report.
The protesters, who also live streamed their demonstrations on social media platforms such as X (formerly Twitter), have been vocal in their criticism of Google’s role in the Israel-Hamas conflict. The Post report revealed that they argue that the technology provided under Project Nimbus could be weaponized against Palestinians in Gaza, raising purported ethical concerns about the use of Google’s technology in military operations.
In the wake of the firings, the group issued a statement through spokesperson Jane Chung, decrying what they described as indiscriminate terminations. “This evening, Google indiscriminately fired 28 workers, including those among us who did not directly participate in yesterday’s historic, bicoastal 10-hour sit-in protests,” the statement read, as was noted in the Post report.
JUST IN: Google has fired 28 staffers after they protested a contract that google holds with Israel. The protesters were all employees in NY and California who stormed the office of executives for a sit in protest.
“They took over office spaces, defaced our property, and… pic.twitter.com/2TGzUZSXWs
— 🇺🇸Travis🇺🇸 (@Travis_in_Flint) April 18, 2024
Rackow’s memo emphasized that such behavior breaches several of Google’s key workplace policies, including those related to harassment, discrimination, retaliation, standards of conduct, and workplace concerns, as was detailed in the Post report. Google’s firm stance on this issue calls attention to the company’s commitment to maintaining a professional environment and ensuring that its workplaces remain free from harassment and disruptive behaviors.
The group, identifying as “No Tech For Apartheid,” levied serious accusations against Google’s leadership, including CEO Sundar Pichai and Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, branding them as “genocide profiteers,” as per the Post report.
The fired employees argue that Google prioritizes its lucrative contract over the ethical considerations and welfare of its own workforce. The report in the Post explained that in a stark condemnation, they claimed, “This flagrant act of retaliation is a clear indication that Google values its $1.2 billion contract with the genocidal Israeli government and military more than its own workers — the ones who create real value for executives and shareholders.” They also held the company’s technology responsible for a considerable number of Palestinian casualties over the last six months, stating, “We cannot comprehend how these men are able to sleep at night while their tech has enabled 100,000 Palestinians killed, reported missing, or wounded in the last six months of Israel’s genocide — and counting.”
The protests that led to these firings saw significant participation, with approximately 50 people involved in New York and 80 in Sunnyvale, California, according to police reports. Indicated in the Post report was that in New York, the NYPD confirmed that four individuals were arrested for trespassing inside the Google building. Similarly, in Sunnyvale, five protesters were arrested for criminal trespassing after they refused to vacate the premises, as reported by the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety.
The controversy comes on the heels of another related incident last month, where Google dismissed a software engineer who publicly criticized one of the company’s Israel-based executives during a tech conference in New York City, according to the information contained in the Post report.
Google’s decision to place the protesting employees on administrative leave initially, followed by termination, suggests a tightening of corporate policy regarding employee conduct and protest, noted the Post.
These protests, which included a direct invasion into the personal office of Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian in Sunnyvale, California, have sparked controversy over the limits of employee activism and the enforcement of corporate regulations. The Post also reported that the protest group not only occupied Kurian’s office, but they used his personal whiteboard to write down a list of their demands. During the livestream, viewers could see Kurian’s custom-framed Golden State Warriors jersey in the background.
A Google spokesperson, when asked for comment, outlined the circumstances leading to the dismissals: “These protests were part of a longstanding campaign by a group of organizations and people who largely don’t work at Google,” they said, as was stated in the Post report. “A small number of employee protesters entered and disrupted a few of our locations. Physically impeding other employees’ work and preventing them from accessing our facilities is a clear violation of our policies, and completely unacceptable behavior.”
The spokesperson added that the company had “so far concluded individual investigations that resulted in the termination of employment for 28 employees, and will continue to investigate and take action as needed.”
