Google has fired 28 employees for participating in a 10-hour sit-in at the search giant’s offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California to protest a $1.2 billion cloud contract with Israel. The Post reported.
Google’s vice president of global security, Chris Rakow, said in a company-wide memo that pro-Palestinian staff members wearing traditional Arab headscarves stormed and occupied an executive’s office in California on Tuesday. said he was fired late Wednesday following an internal investigation. .
“They took over office space, desecrated our property, and physically interfered with the work of other Google employees,” Rakow wrote in a memo obtained by the Post. “Their behavior was unacceptable, extremely disruptive, and made colleagues feel threatened.”
In New York, protesters took over the 10th floor of Google’s offices in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, and the protests expanded to the company’s offices in Seattle, calling it “No Technology on a Day of Massacre.” Ta.
“This kind of behavior has no place in our workplace and we will not tolerate it,” Rakow wrote. “This clearly violates multiple policies that all employees must abide by, including our Code of Conduct and Policy on Harassment, Discrimination, Retaliation, Standards of Conduct, and Workplace Concerns.”
Rackow added that the company “takes this matter extremely seriously and we will continue to apply our long-standing policies to take action against disruptive behavior, including through termination.”
The staff members belong to a group called No Tech for Apartheid, which has criticized Google’s response to the Israel-Hamas war.
Protesters called on Google to cancel the $1.2 billion Project Nimbus contract under which Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services provide cloud computing and artificial intelligence services to the Israeli government and military.
Critics of the company have expressed concern that the technology could be used as a weapon against Palestinians in Gaza.
The group has posted several videos and livestreams of the protests to its X account, including the exact moment an employee received a final warning and was arrested by local police for trespassing. Ta.
The affected workers blamed Google over the layoffs in a statement from No Tech for Apartheid spokesperson Jane Chan.
“Tonight, Google indiscriminately fired 28 workers, including those who did not directly participate in yesterday’s historic 10-hour sit-in protest on both coasts,” the workers said in a statement. .
“This flagrant act of retaliation shows that Google is paying more for $1.2 billion in contracts with the genocidal Israeli government and military than with its own employees, employees who create real value for executives and shareholders. It clearly shows what you value.”
“Sundar Pichai and Thomas Kurian are genocidal profiteers,” the statement added, referring to Google’s CEO and the CEO of its cloud division, respectively.
“Thanks to their technology, we know how they are able to survive at night, despite the fact that 100,000 Palestinians have been killed, missing, injured, and counting, in Israel’s massacres over the past six months. We don’t understand how you can sleep.”
A New York City Police Department spokesperson said a total of about 50 people participated in Tuesday’s protest and confirmed that “four people were arrested for trespassing inside the Google building.”
The Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety said the protest in California “consisted of approximately 80 participants.” A total of five protesters who refused to leave Google’s offices were “arrested without incident for trespassing,” charged and released, the spokesperson added.
It was not immediately clear whether all nine arrested employees were among those fired. Google previously placed employees on administrative leave and cut off access to internal systems.
Last month, Google fired a software engineer who publicly criticized one of the company’s Israel-based executives during a technology conference in New York City.
When asked for comment, a Google spokesperson confirmed the firings.
“These protests are part of a long-standing campaign by primarily organizations and groups of people who do not work at Google,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
“A small number of employee protesters have entered several of our locations and caused disruption. We are not responsible for physically interfering with the work of other employees or impeding access to our facilities. This is a clear violation of our policies and is completely unacceptable.”
“So far, the individual investigations leading to the dismissal of 28 employees have been concluded, and we will continue to investigate and take action as necessary,” the spokesperson added.
Protesters stormed Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian’s personal office in Sunnyvale.
Kurian’s custom-framed Golden State Warriors jersey was visible on the office wall in the background of the livestream, and employees wrote a list of demands on his whiteboard.
Pro-Palestinian employees from a group called “No Tech For Aparttheid” have posted several videos and livestreams of the protests, including one where they received a final warning from local police for trespassing. This includes the moment he was arrested.
The company-wide memo can be read in full below.
Dear Google Employees
Some of you may have seen reports yesterday that there were protests in some of our offices. Unfortunately, many employees brought their events to our buildings in New York and Sunnyvale. They took over office space, defaced our property, and physically interfered with the work of other Googlers. Their behavior was unacceptable, extremely disruptive, and made colleagues feel threatened. We have investigated the employees involved and blocked their access to our systems. Those who refused to leave were arrested by law enforcement and removed from the office.
As a result of the investigation, today we have terminated 28 employees who were found to be involved. We will continue to investigate and respond as necessary.
This type of behavior has no place in our workplace and we will not tolerate it. This is a clear violation of multiple policies that all employees must abide by, including our Code of Conduct and our Harassment, Discrimination, Retaliation, Standards of Conduct, and Workplace Concerns policies.
We are a business, and all Googlers are expected to read our policies and apply them to their behavior and communications at work. The vast majority of our employees are doing the right thing. If you’re one of the few who are tempted to think that we’ll overlook behavior that violates our policies, think again. We take this matter extremely seriously, and we will continue to enforce our long-standing policy of taking action against disruptive behavior, up to and including termination.
They should expect to hear more from their leaders about standards of behavior and discourse in the workplace.
Chris
