Google has laid off at least 20 more workers, bringing the total number of laid-off employees to more than 50 following protests over technology it provides to the Israeli government during the Gaza war. A group representing workers has announced that.
This is the latest sign of the tech giant’s internal turmoil centered on “Project Nimbus,” a $1.2 billion contract signed by Google and Amazon in 2021 to provide cloud computing and artificial intelligence services to the Israeli government. is.
Employees staged sit-ins last week at Google’s offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California, but the company called the police, who arrested them.
Last week, the company laid off 30 employees, up from the 28 it had originally announced, according to protest organizer No Technology for Apartheid.
Then, on Monday night, Google laid off “more than 20” additional staff, “including bystanders who did not participate during last week’s protests,” said Jane Chan, spokesperson for the Tech for Apartheid Movement. he said, without providing more specific numbers.
“Google’s objective is clear: it seeks to quash dissent, silence its employees, and reassert power over its employees,” Chung said in a press release. “In its attempt to do so, Google decided to upend the lives of more than 50 of its employees without due process.”
Google fires additional employees after investigation collects details from colleagues who were ‘physically disruptive’ and identifies employees who wore masks to conceal their identities and did not carry staff badges It was announced that. He did not say how many people had been laid off.
The company disputed the group’s claims and said it had carefully verified that “all terminated employees were personally and conclusively involved in the sabotage within our buildings.”
The Mountain View, Calif., company previously indicated that CEO Sundar Pichai could lay off more people. Show in blog post As the company ramps up its efforts to improve its AI technology, employees will feel the pinch.
