James Myers of OAN
8:26am – Thursday, April 18, 2024
Tech giant Google has fired 28 employees for participating in a 10-hour sit-in protest at its offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California over Google’s relationship with the Israeli government.
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Pro-Palestinian employees who stormed and occupied the California chief executive’s office on Tuesday, wearing traditional Arab headscarves, were the subject of an internal investigation, according to a memo sent by Chris, Google’s vice president of global security. As a result, he was fired late Wednesday. Rakou.
“They took over office space, desecrated our property, and physically interfered with the work of other Googlers,” Rackow wrote in a memo obtained by law enforcement. new york post. “Their behavior was unacceptable, extremely disruptive, and made colleagues feel threatened.”
“This kind of behavior has no place in our workplace and we will not tolerate it,” Rakow wrote. “This is a clear violation of 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.”
The fired staffers were protesting Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion joint agreement between Google and Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud, which provides services to the Israeli government.
“Physically interfering with the work of other employees or preventing access to our facilities is a clear violation of our policies and we will investigate and take action,” a Google spokesperson said. “These employees have been placed on administrative leave and their access to our systems has been blocked.”
Additionally, the fired staff belonged to a group called No Tech for Apartheid, which has been highly critical of the tech giant’s response to the Israel-Hamas war.
The pro-Palestinian group posted several livestream videos and photos of the protest on its It was reflected.
In surprising fashion, the fired workers claimed that Google fired them indiscriminately.
“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.”
Additionally, a NYPD spokesperson said a total of approximately 50 people participated in the protest and four people were arrested.
The Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety said the protest in California “consisted of approximately 80 participants.” The five protesters who refused to leave Google’s offices were “arrested without incident for trespassing,” charged and released, the spokesperson added.
You can read Rackow’s full memo 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 very 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.
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