Google he fired 28 employees in relation to protest sit-ins occurred this week in two of its offices, protesting the cloud contract (Project Nimbus) with the government of Israel. The layoffs come after the Mountain View company subsequently suspended 9 employees arrested Tuesday in New York and California.
Google fires 28 employees after sit-in against cloud contract with Israel
As The Verge explains, Google fired its workers involved in the protest against Google's involvement in the Nimbus project. It is a $1.2 billion Israeli government cloud contract, which also includes Amazon. According to what was reported in the American press, some of them occupied the office of the CEO of Google Cloud, Thomas Kurianuntil they were forcibly removed by the police.
These are not the first protests against this contract, nor the first dismissal related to the Nimbus project. Last month, Google already had fired another employee for protesting the contract during a company presentation in Israel.
Mountain View's position
In a memo sent to all employees on Wednesday, Chris Rackow, Google's head of global security, said that “Behavior like this has no place in our workplace and we will not tolerate it.”.
The executive also warned that the company will take further action if necessary: “The vast majority of our employees do the right thing. If you are one of the few who think we will overlook behavior that violates our policies, think again. The company takes this extremely seriously and we will continue to enforce our long-standing policies to take action against disruptive behavior, up to and including termination.”
According to the note, the employees involved in the protests would have “taken control of the offices, defaced Google property and physically prevented the work of other Googlers”. Rackow called their behavior “unacceptable, extremely destructive” (find Rackow's note on The Verge).
Fair dismissal or “act of retaliation”?
In response to the layoffs, the group “No Tech for Apartheid” who organized the protests called Google's action a “flagrant act of retaliation“. In a post on Medium, the group wrote: “Google workers have the right to peacefully protest the terms and conditions of our employment. These firings were clearly retaliatory.”
The Nimbus project, at the center of the protests, is a agreement signed in 2021 by Google and Amazon to provide cloud services to the Israeli government and army. According to the leaked information, Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services will also provide tools artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Already since the announcement in 2021, several groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace e MPower Change they launched the No Tech for Apartheid campaign, protesting the use of Google and Amazon technologies by the Israeli government, protesting the expansion of Israeli settlements into Palestinian territory. In recent months, with the conflict in Gaza at the center of international attention, protests have increased.
The leaders have so far ignored these protests, reiterating the intention to honor the agreement. The announced layoffs suggest they remain steadfast in working with Israel on the Nimbus project.
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