Employee Protests Lead to Termination of 28 Google Employees

Key Takeaway

• Google fired 28 employees for participating in protests against Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract with the Israeli government and military.
• The terminated employees violated policies including Google's Code of Conduct by defacing property and disrupting workspaces.
• Protests were sparked by concerns that the technology provided could be used against Palestinians, highlighting internal opposition to Google's contracts.

Employee Protests and Termination

Google has terminated 28 employees following their participation in sit-in protests at the company's offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California. These protests were against Google's involvement in Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract to provide cloud computing and artificial intelligence services to the Israeli government and military. The internal memo from Chris Rackow, Google’s vice president of global security, stated that the employees' actions, which included taking over office spaces and defacing property, were unacceptable and disruptive. The company emphasized that such behavior violates multiple policies, including Google's Code of Conduct and Policy on Harassment, Discrimination, Retaliation, Standards of Conduct, and Workplace Concerns.

Project Nimbus Controversy

The core of the protests was Google's Project Nimbus, a collaboration with Amazon Web Services to offer cloud-computing and AI services to the Israeli government and military. Critics within Google have raised concerns that the technology provided could be used against Palestinians in Gaza. The protests, organized by the "No Tech for Apartheid" group, aimed to highlight these concerns and demand that Google sever all ties with the Israeli military and government. The group has been vocal about Google's business decisions, stating that Google workers have the right to peacefully protest the terms and conditions of their labor, and labeling the firings as retaliatory.

Response to Protests

In response to the sit-in protests, Google stated that a small number of employee protesters disrupted several of its locations, impeding other employees' work and preventing access to facilities, which the company deemed a clear violation of its policies. Google's spokesperson emphasized that the protests were part of a longstanding campaign by a group of organizations and people who largely don't work at Google. The company reiterated its commitment to applying its longstanding policies against disruptive behavior, up to and including termination.

Management Quotes

• Chris Rackow, Google’s vice president of global security:

  "Following investigation, today we terminated the employment of twenty-eight employees found to be involved. We will continue to investigate and take action as needed."

• A Google spokesperson:

  "Google Cloud supports numerous governments around the world in countries where we operate, including the Israeli government, with our generally available cloud computing services... This work is not directed at highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services." "A small number of employee protesters entered and disrupted a few of our locations... Physically impeding other employees’ work and preventing them from accessing our facilities is a clear violation of our policies, and completely unacceptable behavior. After refusing multiple requests to leave the premises, law enforcement was engaged to remove them to ensure office safety. We have so far concluded individual investigations that resulted in the termination of employment for 28 employees, and will continue to investigate and take action as needed."