Google fired 28 workers following the sit-in protests that took place in two of its offices in recent days. She reveals it The Vergepublishing an internal company note which – among other things – communicated to employees: “If you are among the few tempted to think that we will turn a blind eye to behavior that violates our policies, think again.”
The measure follows the arrest of 9 employees who in recent days have occupied the company’s offices in New York and California. Furthermore, last month Google had fired another employee for protesting against Israel during an event organized by the company.
The fired employees protested Google’s involvement in the Project Nimbuswhich ensured the Mountain View company (and Amazon) $1.2 billion from the Israeli government for the exploitation of services related to cloud computing.
BREAKING— @google also orders for arrest of of its own workers in SUNNYVALE who sat in for 10 hours at @googlecloud CEO @thomasortk’s personal office, demanding google cut Project Nimbus, the company’s $1.2 billion contract with Israel.
arrests were caught on our livestream pic.twitter.com/pgLe4gkybY
— No Tech For Apartheid (@NoTechApartheid) April 17, 2024
“We didn’t come to Google to work on technology that kills. By committing to this contract, the company’s leadership has betrayed our trust, our AI principles, and our humanity,” he wrote. Billy Van Der Laar, a computer engineer, on the occasion of the protest. Google employees protest against Israel by Riccarlo Luna 17 April 2024
Some of the protesters occupied the office of the CEO of Google Cloud, Thomas Kurianuntil they were forcibly removed by the police.
The Nimbus Project was born in 2021 and already at the time it caused strong internal tensions at Google and Amazon. Two years later, thanks to the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, and Netanyahu’s bombings in the Gaza Strip, protests over the deal have mounted again.
All of these Google employees have now been FIRED.
The tech giant has fired 28 workers who participated in protests in two of the companies offices.
Protesters demanded Google cancel a $1.2 billion cloud contract with Israel.
— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) April 18, 2024
Chris Rackow, Google’s head of global security, wrote to employees that the company will not tolerate “such behavior in the workplace.” Rackow also stressed that “the vast majority of our employees do the right thing” and that the company “will continue to enforce long-standing policies to take action against harmful behavior until termination.”
The group No Tech for Apartheidwho led protests against the deal with the Israeli government, called the firings a “blatant act of retaliation.”