Google fires 28 staff for joining protest against controversial Israel deal
- In Reports
- 11:21 AM, Apr 18, 2024
- Myind Staff
Google has fired 28 employees who participated in a sit-down protest over the company’s “$1.2 billion agreement with Israel.” The dismissal comes after a sequence of incidents where employees, including some adorned in traditional Arab headscarves, marched to the office of Google's chief cloud executive in California, while others staged sit-ins at Google's New York City headquarters.
On Tuesday, demonstrations organised by the No Tech for Apartheid group took place at Google offices in New York City, Seattle, and Sunnyvale, California. Protesters in New York and California conducted a sit-in lasting almost 10 hours, while some documented the event, including via a Twitch livestream. Nine individuals were arrested on trespassing charges on Tuesday evening.
Several employees who participated in the protests, even those not directly involved in the sit-in, received a message from the company's Employee Relations department, notifying them that they had been put on leave.
Google told the affected employees that it’s “keeping this matter as confidential as possible, only disclosing information on a need to know basis” in an email seen by Bloomberg. According to a statement from Google employees associated with the No Tech for Apartheid campaign, on Wednesday evening, the workers were notified of their dismissal by the company.
“Physically impeding other employees’ work and preventing them from accessing our facilities is a clear violation of our policies, and completely unacceptable behaviour,” Google said in a statement about the protesters. “After refusing multiple requests to leave the premises, law enforcement was engaged to remove them to ensure office safety. We have 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.”
On April 16, Google employees advocating for the termination of business relations with the Israeli government and military were arrested following their occupation of Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian's office in California. The employees demanded the cessation of "business with the Israeli apartheid government and military." Following an internal investigation, as stated in a company-wide memo by Chris Rackow, Google's vice president of worldwide security, these workers were let go on Wednesday.
“They took over office spaces, defaced our property, and physically impeded the work of other Googlers,” Chris Rackow wrote in the memo obtained by The Post. The statement further read, “Their behaviour was unacceptable, extremely disruptive, and made co-workers feel threatened.”
Workers involved in the "No Tech for Apartheid" movement remained in the office while protesting, demanding that Alphabet Inc. halt its involvement in what they perceived as "powering Israel's genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.”
Rackow in his statement said, “Following an investigation, today we terminated the employment of twenty-eight employees found to be involved. We will continue to investigate and take action as needed.”
“Behaviour like this has no place in our workplace and we will not tolerate it. It clearly violates multiple policies that all employees must adhere to – including our code of conduct and policy on harassment, discrimination, retaliation, standards of conduct, and workplace concerns,” he added.
Five Google employees were arrested for trespassing after they refused to vacate the office during a protest. They were later released, as confirmed by a spokesperson on Tuesday. The protest was directed against Google's participation in a $1.2 billion project named "Project Nimbus," which offers cloud services to the Israeli government, including its military.
Image source: Reuters
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