Key Takeaways:
- Google fired 28 people after they conducted sit-in protests at its New York and Sunnydale (California) locations.
- 9 of those fired were also arrested for trespassing.
- The protest was organized by a group called ‘No Tech For Apartheid.’ They called the firing of the employees ‘Retaliation’ and ‘Discrimination.’
- However, Google stands firm on its decision and said that the concerned employees violated several company policies.
Google fired 28 employees for protesting against the company’s $1.2 billion contract with the Israeli government and military. The contract, also called Project Nimbus, is a joint collaboration between Amazon and Google to provide cloud and Artificial Intelligence services to Israel. However, certain Google employees were not happy with the deal.
After the news of the contract went public, the employees staged in-office protests in Google’s New York and Sunnyvale offices.
As per a post shared on X, some employees (part of the ‘No Tech for Apartheid’ group) in Sunnyvale marched into the office of Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian and staged a 10-hour long, silent demonstration with placards that said ‘No More Genocide For Profit’ and ‘We Stand with Palestinian, Arab and Muslim Googlers.’
Apparently, the protests were also meant to address the falling mental health of workers at Google who were unable to work for projects that were in a way supporting a ‘mass genocide.’ Similar protests were also held in Google’s New York office.
As a result of this, nine of those involved were arrested for trespassing charges. A staff member who is also a part of the No Tech For Apartheid group said that after the arrest, some employees, even those not directly involved in the sit-in demonstration, received a message from the company saying they have been put on leave.
Then on Wednesday (April 17) evening, some of them were informed that they had been dismissed, aka fired.
What Does Google Have to Say about the Arrests?
Google is confident in its decision to fire the 28 employees. Addressing the group, a Google spokesperson said:
‘These protests were part of a longstanding campaign by a group of organizations and people who largely don’t work at Google.’
Google called the employees’ behavior disruptive and accused them of violating several company policies.
For context, Google said that the protest prevented other employees from carrying on with their day—some couldn’t even access the facility. Plus, when the protesters were asked to leave, they refused. That’s when the company finally had to call law enforcement to ‘ensure office safety.’
Despite the group accusing it of retaliation, Google maintains that it only followed proper procedure and it will continue to investigate the matter and take action as needed.
About Google’s Contract with Israel
The contract dates back to 2021 when Google was selected to provide public cloud services to Israel so that it can address challenges within the public sector.
Although even back then the move wasn’t well-received by some activist employees, everything was fine until a report emerged from Time Magazine saying that the Israel’s Ministry of Defense is a customer of Google Cloud.
The report also said that the Ministry of Defense has its own entry points to a computing infrastructure backed by Google where they can store data and access its AI services. Read all about Google’s latest AI updates in my in-depth coverage of every Google Cloud Next 2024 update.
Coming back to the story, there have also been rumors that the ministry is in talks with Google to expand its cloud services. This is what irked the protest group—plus the fact that Google apparently started offering more services to the ministry after the war broke out.
In response to these allegations, a representative from Google said that its relationship with Israel is similar to that it has with other governments. And the work it does for the government is not highly classified and certainly has nothing to do with the war.
According to Google, it’s simply offering commercial clouds to the government to run workloads. The company also said that it offers similar services to various governments—and that only ministries that agree with its Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy are allowed to use it.
What Do the Protestors Have to Say about the Firing?
The abrupt dismissal of 28 employees did not sit well with the protest group who called it Google’s retaliation. They also said that Google employees have the right to participate in peaceful protests.
Furthermore, they published a joint statement on Medium that says Google valued its $1.2 billion contract more than it valued the well-being of its employees and that everything it said so far about this incident—to the people, to the media, and to the employees—is a complete lie.
Top 3 Statements by the Protesters
- Google claimed that a lot of people in the protest didn’t work at the company and that they physically impeded other Google employees. However, the protestors said that this simply isn’t true.
- They also accused Google of lying when it said its work has nothing to do with the war or in its own words “not directed at highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services.”
- Lastly, the protestors said that firing won’t stop them from doing what’s right. If anything, it will fuel them to keep going. The group has pledged to continue organizing protests until Google is forced to drop Project Nimbus.
