By – Prakarsh Kastwar
Google fired 28 employees who attacked its cloud computing deal with Israel, Project Nimbus. In a memo, the corporation stated that such behavior had no place in its culture and will be unacceptable.
Google ignored 28 employees after they criticized the company’s cloud computing contract with Israel, known as Project Nimbus. Employees held sit-in protests at two Google locations lately. On Tuesday, some employees were jailed after refusing to leave Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian’s office for over eight hours. Following the arrests, Google fired the protestors. According to an internal document acquired by The Verge, Google has no place for and will not tolerate such behaviour.
Google fired 28 employees.
According to The Verge, Google dismissed 28 employees who protested Project Nimbus. In a memo acquired by the journal, the company’s head of global security, Chris Rackow, warned staff against such behaviour and stated that it would not be tolerated.
The message began by saying that some Google employees held sit-in protests at the company’s offices in New York and Sunnyvale. “They took over office spaces, defaced our property, and physically impeded the work of other Googlers,” according to the letter.
Rackow then defined these employees’ actions as “unacceptable and extremely disruptive,” making coworkers feel frightened. He then announced that the employees were examined and had their system access revoked. “Those who refused to leave were arrested by law enforcement and removed from our offices,” he said.
Rackow’s message, which announced the firing of 28 employees participated in the protests, stated, “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 necessary. Behaviour like this has no place in our company and will not be tolerated. It plainly breaches several policies that all workers are required to follow, including our Code of Conduct and Policy on Harassment, Discrimination, Retaliation, Standards of Conduct, and Workplace Concerns.
Also, according to Rackow, the “overwhelming majority” of their staff members “do the right thing.” “The vast majority of our employees do the right thing,” he continued, cautioning them to consider the consequences of their actions. If you’re among the few who would believe that behavior that transgresses our policies will go unnoticed, you should reconsider. The business takes this very seriously, and we’ll keep enforcing our established procedures to deal with disruptive behavior, which may involve firing someone.”
The rallies were coordinated by the No Tech for Apartheid group, a Google employee group that has become increasingly vocal over the company’s business actions.
In reply to Google’s firing of the protesters, the No Tech for Apartheid group stated that the company has not replied to their complaints in three years. “Google employees have the freedom to peacefully protest their working circumstances. “These firings were clearly retaliatory,” the group wrote on Medium.
Why did the staff protest ?
The Google employees were protesting about Project Nimbus, a billion-dollar AI deal inked in 2021. According to an earlier ABC7 news article, Google personnel believe that the services supplied by Project Nimbus are contributing to the use of AI in the ongoing violence in Gaza, which they describe as the first AI-powered genocide.
Emaan Haseem, one of the protestors, previously told ABC7news that she did not want to lose her job, but that it was impossible to come to work every week without “acknowledging and loudly condemning Project Nimbus and any support for the Israeli government.” Haseem further indicated that some staff had quit from the organization, citing Project Nimbus as the cause.
The demonstrators declared their demands during a Twitch livestream. These requests included Google cutting all links with the Israeli military and administration, as well as resolving what they described as a “health and safety crisis” among employees.