Google has recently fired 28 employees who were involved in a 10-hour sit-in protest at the company’s offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California. The protest was against Google’s business ties with the Israeli government, specifically a $1.2 billion contract known as “Project Nimbus”. This contract involves Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services providing cloud computing and artificial intelligence services for the Israeli government and military.
The protesting employees, who are affiliated with a group called No Tech For Apartheid, occupied office spaces, defaced property, and physically impeded the work of other employees, according to a companywide memo from Google’s vice president of global security, Chris Rackow. The protesters were terminated following an internal investigation, as their behavior was deemed unacceptable, extremely disruptive, and threatening to co-workers.
The protest also extended to Google’s offices in Seattle and was part of what the group called the “No Tech for Genocide Day of Action”. The protesters demanded that Google pull out of the Project Nimbus contract, raising concerns that the technology would be weaponized against Palestinians in Gaza.
The fired employees, in a statement shared by No Tech For Apartheid spokesperson Jane Chung, criticized Google for valuing its contract with the Israeli government more than its own workers. They described the firings as a flagrant act of retaliation and claimed that Google had fired the employees indiscriminately, including those who did not directly participate in the protests.
Google has stated that it takes disruptive behavior extremely seriously and will continue to apply its longstanding policies to take action against such behavior, up to and including termination. The company has also emphasized that behavior like this clearly violates multiple policies that all employees must adhere to, including their code of conduct and policy on harassment, discrimination, retaliation, standards of conduct, and workplace concerns.
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